From Plotzk to Boston

FROM PLOTZK TO BOSTON

Mary Antin

Mary Antin

From Plotzk to Boston
by Mary Antin (1881-1949)

An intensely personal account of the immigration experience as related by
a young Jewish girl from Plotzk, a town in Russia. Mary Antin, with her
mother, sisters, and brother, set out from Plotzk in 1894 to join their father,
who had journeyed to the “Promised Land” of America three years before.
Fourth class railroad cars packed to suffocation, corrupt crossing guards,
luggage and persons crudely “disinfected” by German officials who feared
the cholera, locked “quarantine” portside, and, finally, the steamer voyage
and a family reunited. For anyone who has ever wondered what it was like
for their grandparents or great grandparents to emigrate from Europe to
the United States last century, this is a fascinating narrative. Mary Antin
went on to become an immigration rights activist. She also wrote an
autobiography, The Promised Land, published in 1912, which detailed her
assimilation into American culture.

Total running time: 1:53:17

Read by Sue Anderson Li b riVOXxX

isle ee Lena ceva oda acoustical liberation of books
oodcut by Gustav Broling, Temporary Lodgings ‘ : :
Emigrants, Hamburg, (1882) in the public domain

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