SS St. Louis
Encyclopedia
The MS St. Louis was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
most notable for a single voyage in 1939, in which her captain, Gustav Schröder
Gustav Schröder
Gustav Schröder was a sea captain, who is best known for attempting to save 937 German Jews, who were passengers on his ship, the , from the Nazis in 1939.-Voyage of the Damned:The story of the 1939 sailing of the MS St...
, tried to find homes for 937 German Jewish refugees after they were denied entry to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. The event was the subject of a 1974 book, Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned is the title of a 1974 book written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, which was the basis of a 1976 drama film with the same title.The story was inspired by true events concerning the fate of the MS St...
, by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts
Max Morgan-Witts
Max Morgan-Witts is a British producer, director and author of Canadian origin.Morgan-Witts was a Director/Producer at Granada TV. He directed hundreds of popular television shows for Granada, including: 50 episodes of The Army Game, a forerunner of the American show Bilko and at the time Britain's...
. It was adapted for a film with the same title, released in 1976.
Background
Built by the Bremer VulkanBremer Vulkan
Bremer Vulkan AG was a great German shipbuilding company located at the Weser river in Bremen-Vegesack. It was founded in 1893 and closed in 1997 because of financial problems and mismanagement....
shipyards in Bremen for the Hamburg America Line
Hamburg America Line
The Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, Germany during...
, the St. Louis was a diesel
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
-powered ship, and properly referred to with the prefix "MS" or "MV". She is often known as the "SS St. Louis".
The St. Louis regularly sailed the trans-Atlantic route from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
to Halifax, Nova Scotia
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and made cruises to the West Indies. St. Louis was built for both transatlantic liner service and for leisure cruises.
Voyage of the Damned
St. Louis sailed from Hamburg to Cuba on May 13, 1939, carrying seven non-Jewish and 930 Jewish refugees (mainly German) seeking asylumRefugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
from Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
persecution. On the ship’s arrival in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, the Cuban government under Federico Laredo Brú
Federico Laredo Brú
Dr. Federico Laredo Brú was an attorney and served as President of Cuba from 1936 to 1940. He was married to Leonor Montes .-Rise to power:...
refused the passengers entry as either tourists (laws related to tourist visas had recently been changed) or under political asylum. During negotiations, the government requested an additional $500 visa fee per passenger, money which most of the refugees did not have. The demands prompted a near-mutiny. Two passengers attempted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, and dozens more threatened to do the same. However, 29 of the refugees managed to disembark at Havana.
Early in 1939, Cuba enacted Decree 55, which stated there was a difference between a tourist and a refugee. The refugee was required to have a visa and to pay a $500 bond. However, a tourist did not have to abide by these requirements. While Decree 55 stated that refugees were different from tourists, one large oversight existed: it did not define what the difference was between refugees and tourists. Manuel Benitez, Director of Immigration, took advantage of this flaw and called the refugees aboard the St. Louis tourists. This distinction enabled Benitez to sell landing permits (something only tourists could purchase) to the St. Louis refugees for $150. Benitez benefitted from selling the landing permits until the President of Cuba, Frederico Laredo Bru, discovered that Benitez was profiting from the Decree's loophole and refused to share his profits. Angered by Benitez's actions, as well as Cuba's poor economy and growing resentment of refugees, President Bru passed Decree 937, which remedied Decree 55's flaw.
Some histories recount that on June 4, 1939, Captain Schröder believed he was being prevented from trying to land St. Louis on the Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
shore. Material from that time was conflicting. According to authors Rabbi Ted Falcon, Ph.D & David Blatner
David Blatner
David Blatner is a writer and speaker specializing in desktop publishing software, such as Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, and QuarkXPress. Blatner has written 15 books about various subjects with over a half-million books in print, including The Joy of Pi, The Flying Book, Judaism For Dummies,...
in Judaism for Dummies, when the “St Louis was turned away from Cuba…, America not only refused their entry but even fired a warning shot to keep them away from Florida’s shores”.
Legally the refugees could not enter on tourist visas, as they had no return addresses, and the U.S. had enacted immigration quotas in 1924. Telephone records show discussion of the situation by Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull was an American politician from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II...
and Secretary of the Treasury
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
Henry Morgenthau
Henry Morgenthau
Henry Morgenthau may refer to:* Henry Morgenthau, Sr. , United States diplomat* Henry Morgenthau, Jr. , United States Secretary of the Treasury* Henry Morgenthau, III , author and television producer...
, members of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's cabinet, who tried to persuade Cuba to accept the refugees. Their actions, together with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is a worldwide Jewish relief organization headquartered in New York. It was established in 1914 and is active in more than 70 countries....
, were not successful. The Coast Guard
Coast guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a national organization responsible for various services at sea. However the term implies widely different responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to being a volunteer organization tasked with...
was not ordered to turn away the refugees, but the US did not make provision for their entry. As St. Louis was turned away from the United States, a group of academics and clergy in Canada attempted to persuade Canada's Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...
to provide sanctuary to the ship, which was only two days from Halifax, Nova Scotia
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
. However Canadian immigration officials and cabinet ministers hostile to Jewish immigration persuaded the Prime Minister not to intervene on June 9.
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, as the Dominican Republic at the Evian Conference
Evian Conference
The Évian Conference was convened at the initiative of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in July 1938 to discuss the issue of increasing numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. For eight days, from July 6 to July 13, representatives from 31 countries met at Évian-les-Bains, France...
in July 1938 offered to accept 100,000 Jews.)
Captain Gustav Schröder
Gustav Schröder
Gustav Schröder was a sea captain, who is best known for attempting to save 937 German Jews, who were passengers on his ship, the , from the Nazis in 1939.-Voyage of the Damned:The story of the 1939 sailing of the MS St...
, the commander of the ship, was a non-Jewish German and an anti-Nazi who went to great lengths to ensure dignified treatment for his passengers. He arranged for Jewish religious services and commanded his crew to treat the refugee passengers as they would any other customers on the cruise line. As the situation of the vessel deteriorated, he personally negotiated and schemed to find them a safe haven (for instance, at one point he formulated plans to wreck the ship on the British coast to force the passengers to be taken as refugees). He refused to return the ship to Germany until all the passengers had been given entry to some other country.
US officials worked with Britain and European nations to find refuge for the travelers in Europe. The ship returned to Europe, docking at Antwerp, Belgium, on 17 June 1939. The United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
agreed to take 288 of the passengers, who disembarked and traveled to the UK by other steamers. After much negotiation by Schröder, the remaining 619 passengers were allowed to disembark at Antwerp; 224 were accepted by France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, 214 by Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and 181 by the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. They appeared to be safe from Hitler’s persecution.
The following year, after the German invasions of Belgium and France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
in May 1940, the Jews were at renewed risk. Without its passengers, the ship returned to Hamburg and survived the war.
By using the survival rates for Jews in various countries, Thomas and Morgan-Witts, the authors of Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned is the title of a 1974 book written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, which was the basis of a 1976 drama film with the same title.The story was inspired by true events concerning the fate of the MS St...
, estimated that 180 of the St. Louis refugees in France, 152 of those in Belgium, and 60 of those in the Netherlands, survived the Holocaust. Adding to these the passengers who disembarked in England, of the original 936 refugees (one man died during the voyage), roughly 709 survived and 227 were slain.
Later research by Scott Miller and Sarah Ogilvie of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
gave a more precise, higher total of 254 deaths:
Legacy
- After the war, Captain Gustav SchröderGustav SchröderGustav Schröder was a sea captain, who is best known for attempting to save 937 German Jews, who were passengers on his ship, the , from the Nazis in 1939.-Voyage of the Damned:The story of the 1939 sailing of the MS St...
was awarded the Order of Merit by the Federal Republic of GermanyBundesverdienstkreuzThe Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany is the only general state decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has existed since 7 September 1951, and between 3,000 and 5,200 awards are given every year across all classes... - In 1993, Gustav SchröderGustav SchröderGustav Schröder was a sea captain, who is best known for attempting to save 937 German Jews, who were passengers on his ship, the , from the Nazis in 1939.-Voyage of the Damned:The story of the 1939 sailing of the MS St...
was posthumously named as one of the Righteous among the NationsRighteous Among the NationsRighteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in recognition of his heroism in finding safe haven for his passengers on the MS St. Louis. - Louise Welsand Newby was born to Margarette and Edward Welsand on June 30, 1930 onboard the MS St. Louis in the English ChannelEnglish ChannelThe English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
, travelling from New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. - January 20, 2011: "Wheel of Conscience" memorial monument to the passengers of the MS St. Louis unveiling at Pier 21Pier 21Pier 21, a former ocean liner terminal, is Canada's National Museum of Immigration in Halifax, Nova Scotia.It operated as an ocean liner terminal and immigration shed from 1928 to 1971 and became an immigration museum in 1999. Pier 21 is Canada's last remaining ocean immigration shed...
, Canada's national immigration museum in Halifax, designed by Daniel LibeskindDaniel LibeskindDaniel Libeskind, is an American architect, artist, and set designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect...
with graphic design by David BermanDavid Berman (graphic designer)David Berman is a Canadian communication designer and author, Fellow and Ethics Chair of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, vice-president/treasurer/Sustainability Chair of Icograda, President of the first elected board of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario, and an...
and Trevor Johnston. Produced by the Canadian Jewish CongressCanadian Jewish CongressThe Canadian Jewish Congress was one of the main lobby groups for the Jewish community in the country, although it often competed with the more conservative B'nai Brith Canada in that regard. At its dissolution, the president of the CJC was Mark Freiman. Its past co-presidents were Sylvain Abitbol...
, the memorialMemorialA memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
design is of a polished stainless steel wheel that reflects back the observers' feelings as they experience the focus of what led to the turning away of the passengers on the MS St. Louis. Symbolizing the hateful and racist policies that turned away more than 900 Jewish refugees, the wheel incorporates within it four gears of descending size, upon which each has a word inscribed to represent the transmission of influences that - in turning each of the smaller gears - sped up the process that led to the turning away of the vessel and its passengers from sanctuary - antisemitism, xenophobiaXenophobiaXenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
, racismRacismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, and then hatredHatredHatred is a deep and emotional extreme dislike, directed against a certain object or class of objects. The objects of such hatred can vary widely, from inanimate objects to animals, oneself or other people, entire groups of people, people in general, existence, or the whole world...
. Upon the back of the memorial is the passenger list of the MS St. Louis.
Later career
The ship became a German naval accommodation ship from 1940 to 1944. It was heavily damaged by the Allied bombings at KielKiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
on August 30, 1944, but was repaired and used as a hotel ship in Hamburg by 1946. The ship was scrapped in 1952.
Popular culture
- 19741974 in literatureThe year 1974 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics is founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman.-New books:*Richard Adams - Shardik*Kingsley Amis - Ending Up...
book Voyage of the Damned, written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-WittsMax Morgan-WittsMax Morgan-Witts is a British producer, director and author of Canadian origin.Morgan-Witts was a Director/Producer at Granada TV. He directed hundreds of popular television shows for Granada, including: 50 episodes of The Army Game, a forerunner of the American show Bilko and at the time Britain's...
. - 19761976 in filmThe year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...
film Voyage of the DamnedVoyage of the DamnedVoyage of the Damned is the title of a 1974 book written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, which was the basis of a 1976 drama film with the same title.The story was inspired by true events concerning the fate of the MS St...
, which was nominated for numerous awards. - Julian BarnesJulian BarnesJulian Patrick Barnes is a contemporary English writer, and winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize, for his book The Sense of an Ending...
's novel A History of the World in 10½ ChaptersA History of the World in 10½ ChaptersA History of the World in 10½ Chapters is a novel by Julian Barnes published in 1989. It is a collection of short stories in different styles; however, at some points they echo each other and have subtle connection points. Most are fictional but some are historical.-Background:One of the many...
(1989) recounts the trial of the MS St. Louis Jews in the chapter "Three Simple Stories". - Munich Signature (1991), fictionalized account written by Bodie and Brock ThoeneBodie and Brock ThoeneBodie and Brock Thoene are the authors of more than 50 works of historical fiction. Eight of their books have won Gold Medallion Awards.Over 10 million copies of their books have been sold.-Career:...
.
See also
- The Évian ConferenceEvian ConferenceThe Évian Conference was convened at the initiative of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in July 1938 to discuss the issue of increasing numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. For eight days, from July 6 to July 13, representatives from 31 countries met at Évian-les-Bains, France...
, convened at the initiative of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, to discuss the issue of Jewish refugees. - SS NavemarSS NavemarSS Navemar was a Spanish freighter that was used in 1941 to evacuate about 1,120 European Jewish refugees to the United States in grossly overcrowded and insanitary conditions.-Pre-World War II:...
, a Spanish vessel designed for 28 passengers that in 1941 carried 1,120 Jewish refugees to New York in a voyage lasting 7 weeks. - The Struma, a Romanian vessel chartered to carry Jewish refugees that was torpedoed and sunk by a Soviet submarine on February 5, 1942.
- The MefkureMefkureMefkura was a motor schooner chartered to carry Jewish Holocaust refugees from Romania to Istanbul, sailing under the Turkish and Red Cross flags....
, a schooner vessel which was torpedoed and sunk by a Soviet submarine while carrying Jewish refugees on August 5, 1944. - The PatriaPatria disasterThe Patria disaster on 25 November 1940 was the sinking by the Haganah of a French-built ocean liner in the port of Haifa, in which 260 people were killed and 172 injured....
, on November 25, 1940, was sunk by a HaganahHaganahHaganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
bomb in HaifaHaifaHaifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
harbor. - Komagata Maru was another vessel carrying immigrants denied entry to North America.
- None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948 is a book co-authored by Canadian historians Irving Abella and Harold Troper.First published in 1983 by Lester & Orpen Dennys, the book argues that, while many nations were complicit in the Holocaust for their refusal to admit Jewish people...
- book on restrictions to Jewish immigration to Canada during the 1930s and 1940s
Further reading
- Levinson, Jay. Jewish Community of Cuba: Golden Years, 1906-1958, Nashville, TN: Westview Publishing, 2005. (See Chapter 10)
- Ogilvie, Sarah; Scott Miller. Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006.
- Rosen, Robert. Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006.
External links
- Robert Rosen, "Carter Center Library Speech" on "The S.S. St. Louis", 17 Jul 2006, Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust
- "The St. Louis", US Coast Guard's official FAQ
- "The Voyage of the St. Louis", U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
- The Ship of Stolen Dreams, Unproduced musical based on the voyage of the St. Louis
- http://www.sinoue.com/livres/14-un_bateau_pour_l-enfer.phpGilbert SinouéGilbert SinouéGilbert Sinoué is a classically trained guitarist and author who has lived in France since the age of 19. He has won major French literary awards for his books, which are written in French...
, Un bateau pour l'enfer (A ship for hell)] (2005), novel