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Immigrants Speak
P A G E 4
“By the time I was twelve years old, the family had grown bigger in size and poorer in money. I was the eldest of seven children. Now came the time of thinking of moving to America. The relatives, who had preceded us had encouraging tales of opportunities here — plus all the hardships the newcomer must face. One of my mother’s brothers lent the money needed for tickets, for steerage class, for all of us.”
Bessie Halpern Schwartz, manuscript, 1956. Born in Podu Turculu, Rumania, Bessie Halpern and her family came to Minneapolis in 1900. Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
“We were very poor... My mother had two cows, and from the two cows she managed to feed seven of us. The butter, cheese, and milk she sold... paid for our schooling in the little village.”
Solomon Bailin, oral history, 1974. Bailin’s family emigrated from the Ukrainian village of Sosnitza to Sioux City, Iowa, in 1911. Courtesy of the South Dakota Oral History Project, University of South Dakota.
top photo: The Mains Family, Russia. Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest.
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