Interview with Anna B. Lasslo, August 18, 1986

Interview Summary

Anna Lasslo, a Hungarian immigrant who came to the United States in 1921, discusses her life experiences beginning with Hungary before and during World War One. According to Lasslo, life was hard there, and after the war ended, she and her sister and an aunt decided to go to America and join her parents who had emigrated several years earlier. She talks about the traumatic experience of Ellis Island where the new immigrants were treated like cattle as they were processed through. She then recalls the train ride to Hazard, Kentucky, where her parents met her and took her to a coal camp in Kenmore, West Virginia. There she met her future husband, who was a miner, and they moved to Hazard where he opened a small leather shop. At the time of this interview, Mrs. Lasslo still operated the combination leather and jewelry shop. Lasslo does not believe the immigrants were discriminated against very much in eastern Kentucky.

Interview Keyword

Appalachian Immigrant Community Appalachian Region Coal Mining discrimination Education Ellis Island Hazard Kentucky Hungary Immigrant Coal Miners Immigrants Kenmore West Virginia World War I

Interview LC Subject

Appalachian Region Appalachian Region--Social conditions Coal miners Coal mines and mining--Appalachian Region Immigrants Lasslo, Anna B. Lasslo, Anna B.--Interviews

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.