A ship full of refugees fleeing the Nazis once begged the U.S. for entry. They were turned back.
Nine hundred thirty-seven.
Those were the number of passengers aboard the SS St. Louis, a German ocean liner that set off from Hamburg on May 13, 1939. Almost all of those sailing were Jewish people, desperate to escape the Third Reich. The destination was Havana, Cuba, more than two weeks away by ship.
So begins a haunting tale, one that would end tragically for hundreds of those on board — so much so that, decades later, it would be the basis for the movie “Voyage of the Damned.”
Before the St. Louis even left Hamburg, there were already indications the passengers might have problems disembarking in Cuba. The ship’s owners knew many travelers were likely holding invalidated landing certificates, according to research by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Thousands of miles away, anti-Semitic protests and editorials were cropping up all over Cuba.
“Many Cubans resented the relatively large number of refugees (including 2,500 Jews), whom the government had already admitted into the country, because they appeared to be competitors for scarce jobs,” the museum noted. “Hostility toward immigrants fueled both antisemitism and xenophobia. Both agents of Nazi Germany and indigenous right-wing movements hyped the immigrant issue in their publications and demonstrations, claiming that incoming Jews were Communists.”
Still, the inhospitable circumstances awaiting them paled in comparison to what the passengers wanted to flee in Europe, and so the ship set sail. When the St. Louis arrived in Havana two weeks later, only 29 passengers were allowed into the country. The other 908 were ordered to remain on the ship. (One person had died en route of natural causes.)
As futile negotiations with the Cuban government ensued, the would-be asylum seekers redirected their pleas to the American government. They would be in vain.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-ship-full-of-refugees-fleeing-the-nazis-once-begged-the-us-for-entry-they-were-turned-back/ar-AAmmZbA?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp
= new reply since forum marked as read
they thought it might be fun to repeat it.
What a swell bunch of guys!
