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Centenarians: Coming to America

Posted: Saturday, August 02, 2008 12:35 PM
Filed Under:

By John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News, Washington

Mary Hoffman, 101, still remembers coming to America from Russia in 1912, arriving on a ship the same week the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic.

She's one of three centenarians featured by Willard Scott on NBC's "Today" show who talked about immigrating to this country many years ago.

Family photo
Mary Hoffman arrives in America, 1912

"I was 5 years old," Mary said in a recent interview. "They knew I could sing good, and at 5 o'clock in the morning they would go through the boat with lunches and stuff like that, and they would throw me a bun or something to eat, you know, something good."

In return, Mary and her grandfather sang religious songs.

"I know I sang a lot, because whenever they wanted us to sing for 'em, we would sing," she said. "At that time, you was glad when you had something to eat, and we were awful poor, and if somebody fed you something, you appreciated it."

Mary, her parents and her grandfather settled in Michigan, but the rest of her family never made it out of Russia.

"My grandma was on the boat ready to come to America, and they wouldn't let her over here because she had sore eyes," Mary said. "They had a son that had bad eyes, too, and they wouldn't let him come, either, so they stayed home, grandma and the boy and his wife."

Mary's family was searching for a better life; Edith Tucker's family was searching for a safer one.

Edith, 100, and her mother fled Russia's Jewish pogroms in 1925. They escaped to Poland and then to Cuba in hopes of joining her two brothers in Brooklyn.

"One of my brothers was able to bring my mother into this country, but he could not bring me in," Edith said. "I was only 17 years old at the time. I was left in Cuba with a very good friend, and the only way I could get into America was if an American citizen married me and brought me in as his wife."

That's where a distant relative she had never met entered the picture. The son of Edith's mother's uncle agreed to marry Edith with the understanding they'd go their separate ways once she was here. Only, it didn't work out that way.

Family photo
Edith & Herman Tucker, 1925

"He did come to Cuba, and we got married in court," she said, "but then he went back, and he said to my brother, 'When your sister comes in, I'm going to marry her, and don't worry, I'll take good care of her.' And when I got my visa and came in, we got married."

Edith and Herman Tucker were married for 45 years until he died in 1970.

"It was a little awkward at first because I couldn't speak English, and he couldn't speak Jewish [Yiddish] very well, but somehow we understood each other, and I made sure to learn English as fast as I could," she said. "I had a wonderful life with him. We brought into this world three wonderful children."

Another centenarian forced to escape persecution against the Jews was 100-year-old Regina Picker. Regina, her husband Gustl and her parents lost their apartment and Gustl lost his job as a textile designer after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938. They feared being carted away to concentration camps.

"Each time the doorbell or the telephone rings, we hardly dare to respond, fearing the worst," her father wrote at the time.

In 1939, Regina and Gustl fled Vienna for England; her parents joined Regina's brother in New York.

"When I left Austria, it was horrible," Regina said in an interview. "But we were lucky."

In England, ironically, Regina and Gustl were sent to an internment camp on the Isle of Man in 1940 because of their Austrian ancestry. They were considered enemy aliens.

Family photo
Regina & Gustl Picker, 1935

"Interesting that 80 percent of all Germans and Austrians interned were Jewish and certainly not Nazi sympathizers," Regina's niece noted in an e-mail.

Friends and neighbors took care of Regina and Gustl's house and possessions while they were interned for about six months. They were released in 1941 and came to America in 1956, where Gustl continued his life's work as a textile designer.

"We came to America where my husband got another position," Regina said. "I was happy."

If you know of a centenarian who's had a brush with history over the past century, please tell us a little bit about it in the comments section below and be sure to fill in your return e-mail address so we can get back to you for more details.

 

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Comments

Immigration can be a wonderful thing that builds a country and makes it strong.  Just look at past immigration to the USA.  On the other hand, immigration can be something that brings hatred and radical views promoting terrorism to the country that sponsors modern day immigrants with Muslim backgrounds.  If you want examples of this just look around European countries with huge unrest from Muslim immigrants and look closer to home within the USA and you will find mosques where hatred is preached.

There is a big difference between immigrants of past who came here to make a better life for themselves through hard work and in the process contributed toward making the USA what it is today, and immigrants of today who bring hatred and a desire to change things to suit their views.

I am descended from immigrants who came here during the late 1700s and early 1800s and am proud of this heritage.  They all farmed and worked hard, and there is much to be proud of in this.  I love the USA and hope it is around for a long time to come.

CD, Massena, NY (Sent Thursday, August 07, 2008 3:11 PM)

Both sets of my Grandparents came over from Italy, just after WWI, as several of my aunts, uncles & my father were born there. They were pround of their Italian heritage, However, even prouder to be an American. They becane citizens & I remember being told as a child to always love & respect America as well as other countries. My father would tell me about coming over on a boat so crowded, everyone stood & most of the passengers slept that way too, standing up.
However, during & after WWII, the way Benito Mussolini treated the people, my grandparents were ashammed. Even as I grew up in the late 50's & 60's, they would tell me; "Don't tell anyone you're Italian, you might get beat up, just tell them you are an American". Of course my last name gave it away & sometimes some of the older boys in the neighbor hood did beat me or my cousins up. All of the male in my family, Dad, uncles, cousins & myself all fought in one war or another defending this great country. We were & still are very proud to be living in the USA as American citizens.

TM, Las Vegas, Via Detroit (Sent Thursday, August 07, 2008 4:37 PM)

Wow!  Just read all this...Like a lot of people here my family history is made up of at least 5 immigrant heritages. I am greatful for the sacrifices they all made in coming to America.  If any of you have ever moved to another country (not another state), you can relate to the stress and effort it takes to relocate.  You have to want it at all costs.  And, to all those who don't have anything good to say about this country--you need to take a trip overseas, kids.  You OBVIOUSLY have never been out of this country, especially to a third world destination.  How about doing something productive for your country?  Relocate out!

heinz57, Montana (Sent Thursday, August 07, 2008 7:40 PM)

Hello Everyone, I feel your pain and your joy, all of you who have commented. Let us affirm to appreciate that our ancesters made it to these shores and we have been blessed by God to have been the inheritors of those who built this nation. I have come to have a deeper love for our country since working on my genealogy. I discovered that my immigrant family came to America in 1740. Their grandsons born in Va. were just the right age to fight in the American Revolution. Because of their hard work and survival, and thousands of others, we have this wonderful country with all its flaws, it is still the most benelovant, of all others on this earth. We need to stand up today and defend our heritage that has made our country great, and not let the evil forces that are always at play, to take more and more of our God given freedoms away from us. Do the best that you can and help anyone you see that needs your hand of encouragement or whatever is in your power to offer to those around you each day. If each one of us will love our neighbor as ourselves, we can help keep our country great. God Bless and Keep You All.

Joan Nickels. Thayer, Mo (Sent Friday, August 08, 2008 12:38 AM)

I enjoyed reading and learning some interesting History. I immigrated 21 years ago to marry my sweetheart. But, contrary to what most US born citizens think, I did not marry to live in the US. I remember my Mother-in-Law asking me when I got my citizenship if I was going to now sponsor my whole family in.  She could not believe that they are all very happy in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.  

I am very happy here but I have never been anywhere that is as nasty to new immigrants, simply because of the fact they are foreign.  I visited and stayed in South Africa during the terrible Apartheid years, but the worst racism I have witnessed is here in the US and the big difference is that at least South Africa recognised it had a problem. The other diference is that in the US the race problem is black hating everyone who is not black and the whites out of guilt allowing it to happen. Equality is when everyone is on the same playing field.

Michael Franks (Sent Friday, August 08, 2008 3:29 AM)

As someone who took up genealogy only a few years ago, I envy those of you who have such rich knowledge of your family history.  My father and his siblings are all gone, and I never knew his parents.  My mother, her younger brother and two cousins are all that survive their generation and their knowledge is scarce.  Regardless of how your forebearers arrived here, whether via immigration, or being removed from the land of their birth and placed on slave ships from Africa or coffin ships from Ireland, the most important thing is to remember these people.  Never forget their suffering, struggles, dreams and hopes.  Keep them alive and the next generation aware - pass the stories and history along!  Doing so keeps us all alive and proud of our heritage, regardless of how terrible the beginnings.

Ria, Mt. Airy, Maryland (Sent Friday, August 08, 2008 8:44 AM)

we do forget some things :
usa have 1000's of people coming here with "work assigments from Europe" (mostly) Some of my neighbors are angry that this people are here (NOT me )they think that everybody who is in usa are coming for money ! Not so: some people I talk to did live NOT ONLY in usa but in many places in this world of ours. They won't stay here for ever, only for 1-2 years. Many of them will live us with bad impressions. The truth is that: Many emigrants mostly not from Europe, do ABUSE our good will and the kind humanitarian system that we do here. If people have NO skils ? Ist dificult to make a living for them selfs and this is why the anger, in many usa citizens, because they do see the "system abuse" ! My experience with Europeans is this: They like to work and they feel ashamed to get something for nothing. Even if a old timer gets some free help for some snow blowing or grass mowing etc... If you do not accept monetary reward ? They kive you a hand knitted shall (new) freshly baked goodies or something, even baby sitting. But for free ? Very seldom. Is a unic bunch of people, kind, knowledgeble,interested genuinly about others well fair, and they help when need is called without thinking of $ benefits ! In general, Europeans are lot more helpfull and not expecting back any returns or benefits what they doing for their neighbors. Unfortunately, in most cases invers is not the same !
We all should lern from them to be "warmer, kinder and more caring" ! Right NOW we live in a very uggly and greedy world ! Money doesn't bring anybody happiness ! I heard from people who do have millions (on the heavy side)

Arnold Wunsch (Sent Friday, August 08, 2008 9:07 AM)

I opened this site out of interest in immigrant centenarians to find precious few of those and a myriad of contentious opinions and raw feelings! All but one of my ancestors (dating back to the early 1600's) are of immigrant heritage and she was a LeneLenape Indian who had migrated to Pennsylvania from New Jersey.  My mother-in-law lived to be 101.  She immigrated to the United States in 1923 one year after her new husband left Germany to make a home for them in Philadelphia.  They left at a time when inflation was so extreme in Germany that it took a sack full of paper money - thousand mark notes - to buy one loaf of bread.  Neither spoke English when they arrived here.  They took classes in English to be able to read and understand the Constitution of the United States, to pass the citizenship examinations' and to Pledge allegiance to this country.  Mom learned American English by reading the morning and evening papers from front to back and continued so for the rest of her life.  Her grandmother gave her a piece of bread wrapped in a bit of lace so that she would not be homesick.  I have that piece of bread, still wrapped in the now yellowed lace, but it did not work.  She was proud to be an American and loved her life here, but she missed her homeland and her family as long as she lived.  During the Great Depression, family in Germany sent care packages of food and clothing. After World War II her family all were caught behind the iron curtain in what became East Germany and we sent care packages to them. Mom entered the USA through Ellis Island, but she did not like talking about that experience.  She was not detained or mistreated but had an extremely embarrasing situation there and did not want to return even to see the museum and memorial it had become.  Mom did not whine or complain, and was courteous and kind, characteristics that many of the respondents to this site might emulate.      

Jo D. Malessa, Riverton, NJ (Sent Friday, August 08, 2008 10:51 AM)

It's obvious some people never ever studied their AMerican history in school, or failed the course be-cause they weren't interested in it.  What a lost as there is so much to learn.  One side of my family has an Indian backgroud, others fought in the American Revolution.  Study & learn & then judge.

D. Riffel, Enterprise, KS (Sent Thursday, August 14, 2008 11:51 AM)



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