Map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914

My grandparents left Poland in 1914 and travelled below deck by steamship for two weeks, seasick and half-starving, to America to escape the Austro-Hungarian Empire which was drafting Polish men to fight brother against brother. So escaped millions of other Polish people for years. They reached the USA and went through Ellis Island and worked in coal mines in PA and finally learned English and got better jobs. They were so grateful to live in freedom!! We, the third generation, are so proud of them!!
America, the great melting pot, the great tapestry, the place of the great American Dream. I can tell you that life in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was brutal. The Poles' farm land was taken from them, and the Polish people were in hell. God bless America. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the restless refuse of the teeming shore. Send these, the tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door." Those words are found on a plaque at the Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor.