Video: Ellis Island - History Channel Classroom

Summary:

• Features recollections from scores of people who came through Ellis Island.
• Mandy Patinkin (Ragtime, Chicago Hope) hosts this comprehensive look at America's famous gateway.
• Visit areas off-limits to the public and pore over the vast archives.

For some it was the Isle of Hope. For others, it was the Isle of Tears. For half a century, Ellis Island was America's "Golden Door." Entrance meant a new life, freedom and opportunity. Rejection meant a heartbreaking return to hopelessness.

In ELLIS ISLAND, immigrants of every ethnic background recall their extraordinary adventures, from the treacherous passage across the sea to the daunting challenge of starting life over in a new land. Historians explore the island's sometimes insensitive policies, including the casual Americanization of names. Firsthand accounts along with interviews from the Ellis Island Oral History Project reveal what the immigration experience was actually like. And rare photographs and films tell the stories of the famous people who passed through its doors many of whom would change America forever.