sunday life from noon until 3:00 p.m. eastern on book tv, on c-span2. more than 35 million people has a visited the ellis island national museum of immigration since 1990. up next, "island of hope, island ," commissioned by the national park service and narrated by gene hackman, the half-hour explores how and why millions of immigrants traveled to america, passing by the statute of liberty and through ellis island to seek a better life. ♪ [opening music plays]

narrator: over 12 million men, women, and children passed this way, passed through rooms and corridors haunted with a special stillness which remains only in places once noisy with human life. here they bought tickets for a thousand places in america. here they traded their drachmas, their liras, and their rubles, for dollars. here they sang their first american songs, experienced their first american christmas, and hanukkah. here they waited to be given

permission to pass over to the new land. tens of millions of us have relatives who came this way, sat in this room, part of the largest human migration in history. of the many who came, some were turned away. but even they would leave part of themselves in america, to remind us why they had come so far, why they had made the journey.

[bird caws] woman: you never know how hard it was to leave her. that was the hardest thing i think i ever had to do. [bells toll] man: she said if you leave, why, i don't ever want you to come back again. woman: long hard life it was. narrator: europe had always lost its children to america, and now there were new reasons to leave. industrial change and political unrest brought increased joblessness and poverty to italy and southern europe, and reaching as far north as the industrial cities of poland and russia.

in america, they were saying, there was a future, perhaps a fortune to be made. in the southern european ports of naples, piraeus, trieste, and constantinople, they gathered to board the ships to america. some were birds of passage, leaving to seek work and return. others with hopes to find at the end of the journey the good, permanent life that awaited, they were told, 3000 miles across the sea. in the rural areas of eastern europe, they had, in addition to poverty, other reasons to look to america. the government was taking young boys to the army. in a mother's lifetime she might not see him again. and always there was the police, the historic persecutor of the armenian, slovak, and jew.

[whistle blows] woman: you know what i see now, i see the peasant with a wagon and hay to take me, take me away. the whole town was around my wagon. everybody came to say goodbye. i didn't know how to say goodbye. man: poland, russia, romania, and everybody just wanted to get out of there. [train whistle blows] narrator: making their way to the railheads, they sought passage to the sea. some had money for the journey and some did not.

but turning back was seldom an alternative. man: i didn't pay no ticket. get on a train and pray for luck. man: they carried us just like you would carry a load, a bunch of pigs. if you were going to move a bunch of calves, a bunch of pigs, would you put them in a passenger car? that's the way they looked at us. [train whistle blows] narrator: for many, entering the great port cities of northern europe was like entering a new world. they had reached the sea, and the immigrant was now in the hands of the steamship company.

[ship's horn blows] immigrants from the east and north swarmed into bremen, antwerp, hamburg, and liverpool, to be processed for the passage to america. they stood in line together, those who saw america as an adventure, with those who saw america as a beacon of hope. it was a business of numbers, an operation designed to house, feed, and process 4000 people at a time, to identify those whom american authorities might reject and return to europe at steamship expense. woman: first thing they do with you is delouse you. look your hair all over. your hair, if there was a nit in

your hair they would -- you would have to shampoo it. narrator: fearing epidemics, huge facilities were established to fumigate clothing, baggage, and people. processed and ticketed, they waited for their ship. [ship's horn blows] they boarded in many parts of europe and in many kinds of vessels, most to new york and some to other ports. but they had one thing in common. they were traveling steerage, and the steamship companies understood the profit in numbers. [ship's horn blows] they began a journey that could last from a week to a month. [ship's horn blows]

woman: that was the last time it ever ran again. that was the last trip she made. she should have never made that one either. narrator: for some it would be a voyage without incident. for others, the crossing would provide days for which they were ill prepared. man: they gave us a tin plate, with a fork and a spoon, a cup of soup and not much bread. fifteen days. man: there was all one big room. it was in the cellar. there was little lights going on there all the time. little lights.

we were riding in the steerage, like animals. woman: you could see a lot of water, but we didn't see the sky. no sky. narrator: to escape the throbbing engines and the odor of spoiled food, those with blankets came on deck for air. man: she was sick all the time. people didn't know where the toilets were and so they had to use the -- it was a terrible life. woman: i prayed one night that that ship would go down.

it was so horrible. it had to stop for awhile for some, you know, the waves was washing -- i was very sick. oh, god, i prayed it would go down. man: there was only one thing in my mind. i wanted to get out of there, and to come to america. ♪ cawing] man: it appeared, like in a fog. and everybody went over to the railing. just admiring.

man: i thought i was -- i thought i was in heaven. my god, this -- is this a city on earth or is this a city in heaven? i'd never seen a building like that. but beautiful. i had to cry. woman: everybody was just waiting to get off that, standing, waiting to get off that ship. [ship's horn blows] woman: you were just wondering where you were coming to or what was going to happen to you. you know, in your mind. [ship's horn blows] narrator: still separated from the first class and cabin passengers who were processed by

immigration officials on board, the immigrant from steerage waited yet another boat ride, this one from the hudson river pier to an island in the upper bay. crowded into barges and ferries, they approached the place that had become a legend in their mind. ♪ woman: i couldn't get my eyes off that. it's great. i was kind of glad to see ellis island, as bad as it was. it was good to see any kind of land, it was. woman: according to the houses i left in my town, this was like --

like a whole city, that i almost felt smaller than i am. man: and when i came through these doors i saw all these people there, i figured, well, i guess i'll have to stay here for good probably, because, all these people, what are they doing here? and nobody was happy. you don't know what's going to happen. ♪ woman: i had a coat and a dress and a pair of shoes, that's it.

man: one suitcase i had with me and about -- about $50, i guess. woman: my basket -- my little basket, that's all i had with me. you were lucky to have the one. man: we had no other possessions but that. we had no baggage. we had nothing. woman: nothing except the clothes. we had nothing. narrator: clinging to their possessions, they entered the great building and climbed the stairs. woman: jesus, mary, and joseph, i says, where am i?

man: they would come right in to the big hall, and there they were told to sit and stay there, and they didn't know where they were. it was a new land but they hadn't been in land -- it was just a big hall. and all you could get was tears and crying of the children. [baby crying] narrator: for the vast majority, the process would last less than a day. but now they waited, those from europe and the near east, with those who had arrived from the caribbean. those who were the first in their family to come to america with those who would be met. those who came to make money and return, with those who were determined never to return.

man: so they all had this fear, this worry. they were worried about police, 'cause they were always checked in the other countries. man: the word "government" frightened me. government was tyranny, government was officers who looked at you with the sense that they wanted to hate you or eliminate you, and the idea that there is democracy or that the policemen will help you was very new to me. a policeman, to me, was someone who could cut my head off. man: that was the most dangerous thing for everybody to go through -- the eyes. narrator: trachoma, the dreaded disease of the immigrant, the

diagnosis for which could lead to almost certain deportation. woman: if there was anything they put a chalk mark here, a chalk mark there. narrator: those identified to be set aside for possible rejection represented a small percentage examined each day. but this was little consolation to a family separated. woman: you didn't have to know the people, but you know that somebody's missing. the agony they went through. so you know that somebody's missing in the family. man: all of a sudden the thought, 'my goodness, they're separating us,' because that's what the police always did. they separated the men from the women, and then took care of the women and children. as long as some member of the family, some loving member of

the family was with you, life was tolerable. you lived in a relationship of family love. even though the other members of the family, you didn't know where they were, you could converse, you could plan, you could warm each other. woman: i had a feeling that i'm left all alone. it's a terrible feeling. all of a sudden they were gone. [coughing] narrator: america did not want the burden of an unhealthy immigrant. america wanted a person who could make a living and was not bringing into the country an infectious disease.

woman: and they looked your back over, your lungs and your heart, and your everything. and you were sent from one to the other. one doctor to the other. woman: and a lot of people was put away on the side. i wouldn't want to have been sent back. man: people were rejected because they showed outward signs of illness, what they considered mental difficulties. we didn't call it psychiatry, they called it neurology. and we said, we're sorry. and the ship that brought them had to take them back. that was a tragedy. man: i decided that if they ever

have to send me back, i'll jump down in the water. i'll never go back to russia. i never want to see it again. narrator: built for 1500, the dining room often fed 3000. man: there would be dishes and forks and knives and white napkins. long tables, well set, but when the people went in, it was like -- like chaos. they handed us food. food was not something people gave you. i didn't like it, but then i tasted it again. i never had seen a banana before. man: to me the white bread was like cake already.

narrator: at night, ellis served as a dormitory for thousands, waiting the new day. each morning, the great hall would fill and the noise would begin again. hopefully, their papers were in order -- a clean bill of health, a letter from a relative guaranteeing they would not become a public charge, proof that they were not a contract laborer or a dangerous alien. in adjacent rooms, the detained were given additional scrutiny and an opportunity to make their case. but excepting an appeal to washington, the board of inquiry was the rejected immigrant's last chance. through an interpreter, they did

their best to persuade and to overcome the complexities of a changing immigration law. but it was in the great hall where the vast majority faced their first and their last test. in his hand, the man at the registry desk held the ship's manifest. in his power, the right to interpret questions intended to identify those who should be let in or kept out. man: i didn't know a word of english. man: i couldn't understand english, not one word. first question, "how much money have you got?" woman: you had to have five pounds. my father, i remember, gave me that five pounds. woman: do you know how long -- it took a couple of years, two and three years to get that $25.

woman: my mother, when we got nearer and the person at the desk called our names, my mother turned to me, she says, "i was never here, how does she know my name?" i said, "it's all right, ma, she knows it." man: they asked for my name and i told them "licht" and they say, "how do you spell it?" well, i didn't know how to spell it and they didn't know it, and they spelled it l-i-c-h-t. i said, "it's all right for me, i don't know the difference." man: but then they said, "all right, you can go." man: "you're free to go, to hoboken." yeah. narrator: there would still be questions of what food to buy

for the railroad trip to chicago or the boat trip to boston. there was still the strange names, the strange numbers, and the fear of losing one's money. there was the process of buying a ticket, to places with unpronounceable names like "pittsburgh," "hamtramck," and "keokuk." but those were details. the island had passed them through. the door to america had opened. man: it was as if god's great promise had been fulfilled. man: i'm going into a free land. i don't think i ever can explain that feeling that i had that time. there isn't such a thing to be explained. ♪

it came out of my system. it's over. man: it's not my native land, but it means more to me than my native land. it means more to me than my native land. man: any country on earth -- this would never happen -- and become a human being again. it's a miracle. woman: i'm glad i'm here. couldn't be any better, could it? man: and everybody had hopes and one thing i was sure and thousands like me, that the degradation, the abuse, and the

privation that we had in europe, we wouldn't have here. man: oh, god, yes, hoping for centuries. ♪ [closing music]

> next saturday, american history tv takes you live to the museum of the bible in washington, d.c., for a symposium on the bible and its influence on the founding of america. historians explore references to the bible in 18th century local discourse entering the american revolution, and examine benjamin franklin's much debated faith. our coverage begins at 9:00 eastern next saturday, february 10. >> tuesday morning, we are live in jackson, mississippi, for the next stop on the 50 capitals tour. the mississippi attorney general will be our guest during "washington journal" starting at 9:30 a.m. eastern. , a community

leader, and the project director highlight the value of two lesser known document's from the founding era. the documents are a 1787 level by anti-federalist mercy otis 1790 report on public credit by alexander hamilton. the national constitution center and the gilder lehrman institute of american history co-hosted this 80-minute event. thanks to the national constitution center for partnering with the gilder lehrman institute to present this town hall. the senior curator of exhibitions and the project director for revisiting the founding era. this town hall is the first event of a three-your project -- three-year project