wherever people are oppressed, some of the people will find a way to get out. initially people would escape to the american indian communities. know someone who was a chief and now lives in the mohawk valley. he told us the british would always insist there would be a passage in the treaties that people escaped from them would have to return. tribe would agree to it but they would not do it. they said there was one time where a person was returned and they immediately escaped back to the native americans. another question? it is wonderful that you came out in this weather. worried, he little said, i do not know if everybody is going to come because of the weather. but you are here. >> thank you very much.

don: you are welcome. [applause] narrator: you are watching american history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span3. like us on facebook at c-span history. week, american history tv's american artifacts visits museums and historic places. up next, a visit to the national museum of american and jewish history for a tour of their exhibition, tracing the history of jewish people in america. present day.the in the second of a two-part visit, we pick up a story in the 1880's, when an era of mass immigration brought thousands of immigrants to the united states

from eastern europe every year. >> we started to see big waves of immigrants coming to america. they included jews, irish, italian --all kinds of people coming to america at that time. coming to all different ports, not just ellis island, which is the archetype of the arrival story. people were coming to baltimore, philadelphia, boston, and places like galveston, texas, and california as well. we have on display a number of the types of documents immigrants would have needed when coming into these ports. everything from passports to visas, luggage tags, health inspection certificates. these are things that people tended to save for a long time afterwards, and even passed down to their children. they carried great meaning for them.

jews left europe for many different reasons. one of the most well-known is the anti-semitic violence that happened in europe. things called programs, which were anti-jewish riots, and would break from time to time. they were very traumatic experiences. they are strongly remembered even by the great-grandchildren of people who left that time, but they are not the only reason people left. as well, they left for geographic freedom, for economic opportunity, and to avoid military conscription. one of my favorite stories in this area is that of albert hatchwell. atchwell was an algerian jew in 1890. we always think of these jews who came in this time period of being from eastern europe, but hatchwell lets us know that not

everyone was coming from eastern europe. people were coming from all over the place to america. hatchwell's descendents gave us his fez and we have on loan a pair of coffee pots that descended from his family. when people arrived they found both a welcoming harbor and a not always welcoming harbor. not everyone was happy to see all of these immigrants coming into the country. but there were others extending a helping hand in helping these immigrants become acclimated to their surroundings. we have several books on display written for these incoming immigrants to help them figure out what american life was all about, and to help them fit in. so these -- the subjects ranged from how to get your citizenship started, how to find employment, how to be socially accepted in

some cases. we have a few examples of the types of things that immigrants brought with them when they came here. which is always a little bit surprising to me to see these large objects that people brought up with them when they did not have a lot to of luggage space. you see a luck immigrants traveling with a basket or a satchel on their back. but some people manage to bring their and tire cooking set. -- managed to drag over entire cooking sets. things that they could much more easily get here when they got themselves established, even

secondhand if they did not have enough money, but they chose to bring them with them. a lot of times, people stopped using these things when they got here, but they kept the european things and passed them now to their families. which is nice for us because those families donate them to museums and help us tell stories. ava was 17 years old when she came to america by herself, following a brother who was already here. ava is the one standing in the middle of that photograph, appearing with her family home in europe. she came to philadelphia, lived with an uncle and aunt his wife for a while. she later told her daughter that she had emigrated because she had finished the educational -- the educational opportunities had run out or her, and -- had run out for her, and she wanted to continue going to school. when you talk of the reasons people came here, that is a compelling one for all of us. she brought with her her muffin tin and passed that down to her children, they belonged to her grandmother before she left. she brought with her this table runner that she stitched while she was on the journey. we have this reviewed by a

textile conservator to make sure we displayed in in a way that would best preserve it. the conservator told me that it was made from a kit that would have been purchased. i like to think about ava thinking about the long ocean voyage of ahead of her and thinking about, what am i going the boat?e i am on and then going out to buy a kit so she could do some embroidery while sitting on the ship to get to america. on this area, we call this our streetscape. it is a typical immigrant, urban neighborhood. smallerdifferent galleries that go from this area where we talk a different subjects, including the way that people lived, their whole life. a lot of people lived in tenements. a very crowded situation. this was a different experience. people were living very close to each other, people of other

nationalities, and learning about them in those situations. so in here, we have some artifacts related to domestic life in the early 20th century. one gallery that surprises a lot of our visitors is this one, where we explore the farming experience. not all jewish immigrants ended up in urban environments. some of moved into the interior and took up farming. this afghan and these tools belonged to the rachel's family. rachel came to america and promptly moved to a homestead in north dakota where she lived with her husband for seven years before the family moved to chicago.

in this gallery, we learn a little about the types of work that jews were doing at this time in the urban immigrant community. a lot of factory work. a lot of manufacturing. and of course the garment industry was a major area that employed a lot of jews in factories. this was a time when the labor union started getting more traction here in america. people began fighting for rights like shorter working hours, and basic safety in their factory settings. this was a sewing machine that belonged to a man who came to america and found work in a factory in south philadelphia where he met his wife. they left the factory together

and started to a tailor shop. he worked at this sewing machine for 30 years. here we learn about the jewish experience in world war i. this uniform was warned by miler silas coen. he was a doctor in the american expeditionary forces stationed in france. 300you know that there were female marines in world war i? eva davidson. they normally had clerical positions. they were looking to open up positions so that more men could go overseas. i believe some of the women were stationed overseas as well. eva davidson was stationed in washington, d.c. she worked for the payroll person. in the 1920's, a lot of the

immigrant fears that had been boiling during the great migration started to come to a head, which eventually led to the act which would effectively end immigration by creating a quota. this was the 1920's, which were also a time of rising anti-semitism, largely due to the big immigration surge up to the 1920's. the 1920's were also due to a lot of rising anti-semitism. here we talk a little bit about that. about henry ford's anti-semitism and the rise of " the protocols of zion" which was a false and fraudulent document purporting to talk about a jewish conspiracy to take over the world which was published in the 1920's.

1930's, there was a sort of cultural flourishing and america. despite the depression, there was a lot of rich artistic activity. so during this time, we look at the rise of the movies in the 1930's. as well as the jewish theater. and we look at the wpa. , the government program that supported artists during the 1930's, and many others. we also look at the political situation in america. a lot of people were espousing different concepts like socialism, zionism, or different political concepts and trying them out in the interest of making america better. we also explore religion in the 1930's. this congregation was a south philadelphia immigrant synagogue that opened its doors in 1913. by the 1980's, the congregation had slacked off, and they would soon be closing the doors and

people were moving out of the neighborhood. they did not need the big synagogue anymore. someone from the congregation called our museum and asked us and asked if we would like to go in and see their torah art, which our curators did. in 1984, they saw a monumental, handcarved, hand-painted torah arc that had been painted by these immigrants 70 years earlier in philadelphia. we salvaged the entire torah arc, part of it is on display here now, including these liens on display here on the ceiling. think, thedone we carving, by people who were also carving carousel animals. you can kind of see that in the face of the lions. in this area, we look at the american experience of world war

ii and the holocaust. jewish leaders were faced with a dilemma. should they boycott germany and hold rallies in the street and make lots of noise about what they knew was happening in europe? or should they quietly work behind the scenes to come to a diplomatic solution to this rising problem of the nazi riots in europe? one of the reason for this hesitation was that there was domestic anti-semitism. we saw in a earlier gallery, henry ford's publication espousing his violent anti-semitic beliefs. as well during the 1920's and 1930's, you had people like father cochran, who was a catholic priest who had a radio show and was a national figure who spoke up against jews. very anti-semitic. during this time, there were very strict quotas for who could enter america and when.

the visa system was very controlled at this time. this is a steamer trunk from a family that attempted to emigrate in 1939 on the ms st. louis, and luxury ship carrying 937 passengers from germany to cuba. most of the people were jewish and most had visas to enter the united states at a later date. they were going to wait out the time period before that in cuba. when they arrived in havana, they realized that their landing permits were fraudulent. they had been sold to them by a corrupt government official. so, only a few people were able to get off the boat in cuba. the jewish community scrambled to try to figure out how to give these 930 people refuge in america. and they were ultimately unable to do so because the quota system was strict.

the ship had to turn back to europe. joseph joseph, who was on the ship with his wife and their daughter, this is their trunk, was head of the passenger committee. the captain of the ship, who was not jewish, organized in order to bouy spirits of the customers as they were headed back to europe. people were terrified what would happen to them when they had to get off the ship again. this particular family made their way to america the following year. they got off the ship in great britain and came to the lindell via the following year. the lindell via the following year. and came to philadelphia the following year. in 1997, we got a call from an auction house. the auctioneer, barry fossberg,

had this steamer trunk put on consignment, and he noticed a sticker that said st. louis. he knew about the journey of the st. louis, so he called us and asked if we were interested in the trunk. and, he very generously purchased it from the consignor and donated it to the museum. and so it is one of our special artifacts here. by 1944, it was widely known that the holocaust was happening in europe. we were immersed in world war ii and the treasury secretary asked several of his aides to write a report on this subject. on what the government was doing to help aid european jews. his aides wrote a long report to him after studying the

subject. it "the acquiescence of this government on the state of european jews." it was very explicit statement on what was happening. morgenthaler condensed this report and presented it to roosevelt, in several days later the refugee board was instituted to try to get people out of europe and give them refuge in america. even though people were able to come here, more people went to england and other places. one of the phenomena that we saw was a lot of americans, jewish and not jewish, started organizing and trying to figure out ways to get threatened people out of hostile territory to america. one of the compelling stories is helga weiss and 49 other

children saved by a couple, and the jewish fraternal organization briss shalom. mr. and mrs. krause, were able to obtain 50 visas to help bring unaccompanied children from europe to america. they traveled to europe to interview the families of the people who applied, and one of them was helga weiss, her parents rosa and emile. they applied for her to be in this transport. they had already managed to send their older daughter to palestine, so that she could be safe there. and they were happy to find a spot for helga on this transport. helga brought with her this teddy bear, pair of pajamas that her mother had made, and this hairbrush. her mother thought.

this is held and her passport here. she strongly remembered the application process. she was only eight years old at the time, but later said that she always remembered having to write everything perfectly, and the amount of pressure that was on her to do everything perfectly on this application, because her parents were frightened that if her handwriting was not perfect, she might not be chosen to go on this trip and be rescued. helga's mother died in the holocaust. her father managed to come to america. she had been living with a foster family during the time, about a year when they were separated, and they moved to detroit where she grew up. a very sweet lady. she trained seeing eye dogs later in life. she used the teddy bear in the gavenity in talks that she

to tell people about the experience of jewish people during the holocaust. in this gallery, we look at the experience of jewish soldiers fighting in the war. both men and women. we have a uniform here from a woman who was in the army ancillary core. she enlisted in 1942. her name was sicilia winkler. our second floor explores the postwar time up to the present day. it looks at culture during this time period. the cold war. suburbanization and the establishment of the state of israel as well as carrying on religious traditions. you might have noticed that both of the floors above us started with an immigration story. this floor starts really more with a migration story. in the postwar, a lot of the

jews are moving out to the suburbs, along with their christian neighbors and everybody else. the jewish immigrants who are coming here during this time are more of the dp's from europe. displaced people living in camps in europe. a lot more went to israel, some state in europe, some came to america. the establishment of the state of israel was a momentous occasion for jewish americans in 1948 who were still horrified by what had happened during the holocaust. israel ahead carried a lot of meaning. a safe refuge for jewish homes. 1950's, we experienced the red scare. this was a frightening time for many jewish people, many who had been involved in communism

in the time before. neighborhoods, a lot of ideas were percolating about how best to improve of america. how to make things work well for everyone. and communism was one of those ideas people had. one of the news stories was that trial of julius and ethel rosenberg, who were a jewish couple. we know now that julius was a spy, and we are not sure of ethel's involvement. they were executed as spies. at the time, people did not really believe they were spies. they thought it was more anti-semitic than anything. and certainly there were anti-somatic aspects to the way that americans were reacting to their trial. we hear a lot about the hollywood blacklist, and it was a real thing. this is a book called "red channels." it was written and published in

1950. it was something that named names. if you open the book, you will see all kinds of famous names from well-known people and it listed everything that they did that was considered un-american. this is the summons for screenwriter alvah bessie to give testimony before the house un-american activities committee. she became what was known as the hollywood 10 which were a group of hollywood people imprisoned. bessie was in jail for a year in contempt of congress. he would never work in hollywood again. in this area, we look at the experience of jewish families who moved out of the urban areas into the new suburbs that were opening up. at the end of world war ii, with the g.i. bill, a lot of people had the opportunity to get an

education, start a business, and buy a house in a neighborhood somewhat nicer than the immigrant neighborhoods they had been in. a lot of people were moving to the new suburbs outside of the city. here we talk about the catskills. famous in jewish history. and we talk about the different kind of leisure activities that people were doing in the 1950's in the postwar period. from going on vacation -- the catskills were to a mountain area in upstate new york that became a popular with artists in the 19th century, and with vacationers later on looking to get out of the city. a lot of the hotels up there were restricted. they would not excepted used to register at the hotels, so jews

started to build their own hotels, including this famous thesic hotels like concordat and others. their clientele were jewish, they would have kosher menus, and offered high holiday services in the fall. one of the results of people moving out to these suburbs is they were not such tightknit jewish communities anymore. a lot of jewish people in the suburbs started to build ways to help their children remain jewish, to help support jewish tradition in their children, and meet other jews in their communities where they had a lot of christian neighbors and were mingling freely with them, too. so this is the time period where the community centers were established in america and people were making an effort to send their children to jewish schools, or supplemental jewish

schools after school or on the weekend. here, we look at jewish summer camp. kids toth sending your jewish schools or jewish supplemental schools, and lots of parents is sent their kids to jewish summer camp ring the summer. including camp sedgewin. during this time period, when people were thinking about how to teach their children, they started inking about more innovative ways to teach kids. more effective ways. diana foreman, you see her in that picture with her two children decided that one way to teach children about the bible would be to create toys that told the bible stories, so kids could act out the stories. she did a lot of research into costume in the biblical period, and she started making her own dolls. she made hundreds and hundreds of them and brought them to

school and taught kids about the bible. she eventually opened a commercial business, the american bible doll company, which sold dolls to department stores in the 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's and eventually a collection of these bible dolls came to this museum in the 1980's that came directly from diana, which she had made. we start to look at the 1960's and the 1970's was the time of the great social fomenting of different ideas. we look at jewish involvement in the civil rights movement. we look at feminism and the jewry movement.

the jewish national relationship with israel during this time period as well. the last area of our exhibition, where we have artifacts, is this area where we look at the 1980's. jewish culture in this time period, as well as identity, and what it means to be a jew in the late 20th century. this is a hanukkah menorah from a survivor of the holocaust. he collected a lot of judaica, which is a jewish term for artifacts. he designed this menorah in 2011 when the statue of liberty turned 125 years old. he made a cast of a little souvenir liberty for a statuette, and turned it into a menorah. we have it on display here and we actually loaned it out to the white house a couple years ago. president obama lit it for a cap. our visitors ave

chance to talk back to us and top with each other after making their way about this -- through this exhibition in learning about the history of jewish people in america. gallery, we project for questions all the time and we change them according to current events. if something happens, we post a new question. visitors get a chance to fill out a post-it known with their opinion and put it on the wall and see how people are reacting to contemporary events, which has a lot to do with historical events. announcer: this was the second of a two-part look at the national museum of american jewish history. you can watch this and all other american history tv programs at c-span.org/history.

>> all weekend, american history tv is featuring alabama's capital history of montgomery. cotton production came to be the major industry in montgomery, alabama. c-span's city tours staff visited and featured many sites showcasing the city's history. learn more all weekend here on american history tv. >> welcome to the first white house of the confederacy and alabama. we are so glad you have come to visit us. this is the home of president jefferson davis and his family while they were here when the federal government was formed across the street at the alabama state capital. president davis and his wife and three children at the time moved into the first white house in the confederacy shortly after they came to