This is the people's history of Ellis Island: the people who passed through it, and the people who were turned away from it. Szejnert draws on unpublished testimonies, memoirs, archival photographs, and correspondence from many internees and immigrants, including Russians, Italians, Jews, Japanese, Germans, and Poles, along with the commissioners, interpreters, doctors, and nurses who shepherded them -- all of whom knew they were taking part in a significant historical phenomenon.. At the book's core is a trove of personal letters from immigrants to their loved ones back home-- letters which were confiscated and never delivered, finally discovered in a basement in Warsaw. Szejnert weaves together the personal experiences of forgotten individuals as well as Ellis Island employees. The result is a story of a place and its people, steeped in politics and history, that reshaped the United States. --From publisher description.