Polish passport of H. Straszunska
Passport issued by the Rzeczpospolita Polska to Henia Straszunska (born 1884) for travel to America with her daughters Sora (9) and Etel (6). The 22-page passport includes a photograph of Henia and Etel, her Yiddish signature, and stamps documenting their journey from Oshmyany through Warsaw, Danzig, Hull and Liverpool to New York in 1921. Henia later became Hannah Strauss in the United States.
- Emigration
- Heritage
- Identity
- Memory
- Migration
Harvey: "I was astonished to see the passports, because it’s the relics of my family's immigration to the United States. It's just stunning to see something like that. Passport for my grandmother in 1921, from different countries. I believe it was very difficult for my grandmother to get her passport. Because my grandfather left Oshmani in 1913. And it's very typical for immigrants that the man goes first to try to get a job set up and make things ready for the family to follow. But it was 8 years from when my grandfather left until my grandmother left, and that's a very long time. I believe that it must have been very difficult. Part of that reason was World War I. After World War I it was difficult for people to emigrate. But my grandmother finally arrived in 1921 to USA with 4 children, including my mother. There were 5 family members, that was a passport for 2 of them. Also transatlantic travel was very dangerous. But after World War I, there were other problems. And so it was a very difficult thing. Apparently, the difficulties were on the Polish side. Americans didn't have a problem. Although they were ultimately restrictions in immigration. It was very hard to get out of Poland”.
