OSWEGO, N.Y. (WROC) — It’s one of the best-kept secrets of World War II.
The only shelter in the U.S. for refugees of the Holocaust was located just an hour and a half away from Rochester.

In 1944, an old Army camp in Oswego was transformed into a shelter for 982 Jewish people who were fleeing the Nazis in Europe.

Most spent years going from safe house to safe house, faking passports and IDs to avoid being sent to concentration camps. Then, the U.S. agreed to bring them to the camp, called Fort Ontario.

Today, the camp is a museum called Safe Haven. Some of the refugees visited it Monday to mark the shelter’s 75th anniversary.

For more information on the Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Museum click here.