SS St. Louis

SS "St. Louis" was a German ocean liner built by the Bremer Vulkan shipyards in Bremen for the Hamburg America Line. Even though she did not have a steam engine, inaccurate usage of the "SS" prefix in referring to "St. Louis" is prevalent. As a diesel engine-powered ship she should more properly be referred to as MS "St. Louis".

"St. Louis" originally sailed the transatlantic route from Hamburg to New York, but during the Great Depression turned to cruises to make revenue. She is most notable for a single voyage in 1939, which was dramatised in the 1976 motion picture "Voyage of the Damned".

Voyage of the Damned

Hitler's propaganda ministry and the Nazi party conceived a propaganda exercise which would demonstrate that Germany was not alone in its territorial exclusionary hostility towards Jews as a permanent minority within the political economy of their nationFact|date=April 2008. The Nazis wanted to prove the “civilized world” agreed with their assertion that Jews constituted a “hidden-hand” of influence on national and economic affairs. They meant to show that no other Western country would receive Jews as refugees.

On the surface, it would appear that the Nazis were allowing the Jewish refugees a new life in Havana. However, the Nazis were aware of rising western antisemitism

, since they were clearly political and social refugees. Furthermore, once they had been refused entry by Cuba and other Atlantic nations, the world would be forced to admit that there was, as the Nazis claimed, a “Jewish problem”, which Germany was trying to resolve “humanely.”Fact|date=April 2008

Since not one of the countries of the North Atlantic basin would allow the Jewish refugees entry, these countries could not morally object when Nazi Germany dealt with its own Jewish population as it saw fit.Fact|date=April 2008

"St. Louis" sailed from Hamburg in May 1939, carrying one non-Jewish and 936 (mainly German) Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution. [cite press release | title = United States Holocaust Memorial Museum completes ten-year search to uncover the fates of St. Louis passengers | publisher = United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | date = 2006-10-06 | url = http://www.ushmm.org/museum/press/archives/detail.php?category=07-general&content=2006-10-06 | accessdate = 2007-07-17 ] Rosen, p. 563.]

As expected, on the ship’s arrival in Cuba, the Cuban government under Federico Laredo Brú refused the passengers both entry as tourists or political asylum. This prompted a near mutiny. Two passengers attempted suicide and dozens more threatened to do the same. However, 29 of the refugees did manage to disembark at Havana.Rosen, p. 103.]

On 4 June, 1939, the "St. Louis" was also refused permission to land her passengers under orders from President Roosevelt as the ship waited between Florida and Cuba. Initially, Roosevelt showed limited willingness to take some of those on board despite the Immigration Act of 1924, but vehement opposition came from Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and from Southern Democrats—some of whom went so far as to threaten to withhold their support of Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election if he allowed it. Fact|date=May 2008

The "St. Louis" then tried to enter Canada but was denied permission as well. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2000/11/06/holocaust001106.html Clergy apologize for turning away the St. Louis.] CBC website. Retrieved 2008-05-08.]

The ship returned to Europe, first stopping in the United Kingdom, where 288 of the passengers disembarked. The remaining 619 passengers disembarked at Antwerp; 224 were accepted by France, 214 by Belgium by 181 into the Netherlands. They were thus safe from Hitler’s persecution until the German invasions of these countries. [Rosen , pp. 103, 567.] [cite web |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/stlouis.html |title=The Tragedy of the S.S. St. Louis |accessdate=2007-07-17] The ship without any passengers returned to Hamburg and amazingly survived the war.

By using the survival rates for Jews in the various countries, Thomas and Morgan-Witts estimated that about 180 of the "St. Louis" refugees in France, plus 152 of those in Belgium and 60 of those in Holland survived the Holocaust, giving a total of roughly 709 survivors and 227 slain of the original 936 Jewish refugees. [Rosen, pp. 447, 567 citing Morgan-Witts and Thomas (1994) pp.8, 238 ] [cite speech | title = Saving The Jews | first = Robert | last = Rosen | date = 2006-07-17 | location = Carter Center (Atlanta, Georgia) | url = http://www.savingthejews.com/html/carterlibraryspeech.htm | accessdate = 2007-07-17 ]

Later, more detailed research by Scott Miller and Sarah Ogilvie of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has given a slightly higher total of deaths:

Of the 620 St. Louis passengers who returned to continental Europe, we determined that eighty-seven were able to emigrate before Germany invaded western Europe on May 10, 1940. Two hundred and fifty-four passengers in Belgium, France and the Netherlands after that date died during the Holocaust. Most of these people were murdered in the killing centers of Auschwitz and Sóbibor; the rest died in internment camps, in hiding or attempting to evade the Nazis. Three hundred sixty-five of the 620 passengers who returned to continental Europe survived the war. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=szsEtvPJ--cC&pg=PA174&vq=afterword&dq=9780299219802&output=html&source=gbs_search_s&cad=4&sig=v3ZYLwiVcUol3lYEw2MUjduBLW0 Miller and Ogilvie, pp. 174–175] .]

Julian Barnes’s novel "A History of the World in 10½ Chapters" recounts the trial of the "St. Louis" Jews in the chapter “Three Simple Stories”.

Later life

The ship became a German naval accommodation ship from 1940 to 1944. It was heavily damaged by the Allied bombings at Kiel on August 30, 1944, but was repaired and used as a hotel ship in Hamburg by 1946. The ship was eventually scrapped in 1952.

See also

* The Évian Conference, convened at the initiative of US president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees.
* The "Struma", an ill-fated Romanian vessel chartered to carry Jewish refugees sunk February 5, 1942.
* The "Mefkure". an ill-fated schooner vessel which was sunk while carrying Jewish refugees in August 5, 1944.
* The "Patria" in November 25, 1940, sank in the Haifa harbour.
* "Voyage of the Damned", a 1976 film drama based on the 1974 book written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts

Notes

References

*cite book | last = Miller | first = Scott | coauthors = Sarah A. Ogilvie | title = Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust | publisher = University of Wisconsin Press | location = Madison | year = 2006 | isbn = 9780299219802 | oclc = 64592065
*cite book | last = Rosen | first = Robert | title = Saving the Jews: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Holocaust | publisher = Thunder's Mouth Press | location = New York | year = 2006 | isbn = 9781560257783 | oclc = 64664326

Further reading

*cite book | last = Morgan-Witts | first = Max | authorlink = Max Morgan-Witts | coauthors = Gordon Thomas | title = Voyage of the Damned | publisher = Motorbooks International | location = Stillwater, Minnesota | year = 1994 | edition = 2nd, revised | isbn = 9780879389093 | oclc = 31373409

External links

* [http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/stlouis.html The Tragedy of the S.S. St. Louis] — Jennifer Rosenberg, Jewish Virtual Library, The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.
* [http://www.savingthejews.com/html/carterlibraryspeech.htm The S.S. St. Louis] — Robert Rosen.
* [http://www.uscg.mil/history/faqs/St_Louis.asp The US Coast Guard's official FAQ on the incident] .
* [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/stlouis/ The Voyage of the St. Louis] — The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
* [http://www.shipofstolendreams.com The Ship of Stolen Dreams] — An unproduced musical based on the Voyage of the St. Louis.
* " [http://www.sinoue.com/livres/14-un_bateau_pour_l-enfer.php Un bateau pour l'enfer] ", the 2005 novel by Gilbert Sinoué.