Für alle Geschichtsliebhaber hier mal ein kleiner englischer Beitrag von mir.
Eine Geschichte aus der Sicht eines jungen Mädchens, das mit ihrer Mutter nach Amerika kam und die von ihren Eindrücken auf Elli's Island erzählt.
Hey, my name is Monia Vicotelli.
I came here to America when I was seventeen years old.
My mom and I were alone because my dad died because of a heart attack some months earlier so my mum did not know what to do with me.
She heard that a friend wanted to leave Italy and so we started a long journey with her.
First we were taken to Ellis Island by a ferry with lots of other people.
Then we were brought to the main building, the Library of Congress.
After leaving our bags in the Baggage Room we got to a gigantic staircase.
There were so many people. Mum held my hand much tighter.
At the end of the stairs I saw men who looked at us very critically.
Checking the people coming up the stairs these doctors had to find out whether there were some people having problems getting up the stairs.
Before us there was an older woman who had a hurting knee.
She was marked with a cross.
As we got to know, those people had to be sent to a full physical examination.
I was very lucky that Mum and I did not have to be marked.
After the stairs my mum had to go into a medical examination room. A gentle nurse took me to another room. Suddenly I felt very lonely and I was a bit afraid. But the doctor told me that he would like to check if I am healthy enough for being able to work later and that there was no reason for being afraid.
Only a few minutes later he reassured me that everything was fine and that I had to wait for Mum in a monstrous hall called Great Hall.
It is about 200 feet long and 100 feet wide.
Entering this giant hall I started looking for Mum directly.
I elbowed my way through the crowd until I saw my mum looking for me, too.
We took each other’s hand and went to the next hall with a long queue before it.
I had the feeling of waiting for hours and my bully hurt because I did not know at all what was waiting for me until we were finally allowed to enter.
Getting inside we noticed a lot of tables all over the room. We were requested to go to one of those and the man, a legal inspector, sitting there asked us which country we came from.
We had to prove our country of origin and we had to tell him where we had planned to live and work.
Then he gave us different pieces of paper with a passage from the Bible.
He told us to read it aloud and it was very important to pass the literacy test. If not, we might have been be sent back home again. So I was incredibly happy that I have learned reading one year ago. So this was rather easy for me. For Mum it was no problem, either.
Then we got to the next point where we had to show our passports and visa.
The woman behind the desk was not very kind. Snatching the passports from my mum she grumbled something like “Why do I always have to do this…I could be at home playing with my children”. I was glad to get away from her. Having passed all the relevant tests we got to the money exchange where we had to give our Italian money away to receive the American dollars and some kind of train tickets we would need.
Luckily, we scraped through it because we received 25 dollars and you may not immigrate if you have got less than 20 dollars.
And finally we got outside to the kissing post.
It is called like that because it is so emotional there.
On the one hand you do not know what will happen to you, what your life will be like, if America is really good for you, if you will like it there, but on the other hand you are unbelievably happy to have passed those tests and examinations. You cannot believe how glad you are when you know that you are healthy and that there are so many chances waiting for you.
And this kissing post is where all the people being allowed to immigrate meet. We even met Mum’s friend, but unfortunately he got on the ferry to Manhattan with one third of the people.
Mum and I, we were taken to the ferry that drove to New Jersey with the other two thirds.
And when we arrived there, my mum took me into her arms and said: “Honey, you cannot imagine how much I love you”
