Voyage of the Damned

Infobox Film
name = Voyage of the Damned


caption = film poster by Richard Amsel
director = Stuart Rosenberg
producer = Robert Fryer
William Hill
writer = David Butler
Steve Shagan
starring = Faye Dunaway
Oskar Werner
Lee Grant
Max von Sydow
James Mason
Malcolm McDowell
distributor = AVCO
music= Lalo Schifrin
cinematography = Billy Williams
released = 1976
runtime = 155 min
imdb_id = 0075406

"Voyage of the Damned" is the title of a 1976 film drama and of its 1974 source book, written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts. [cite book
author = Thomas, Gordon and Witts, Max Morgan
authorlink =
title =Voyage of the Damned
publisher =Konecky & Konecky
date =1974
id = ISBN 1568525796 ] The story is inspired by true events concerning the fate of the SS "St. Louis" ocean liner carrying Jewish refugees from Germany to Cuba in 1939.

Personnel

It was directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and with a screenplay by David Butler and Steve Shagan. Its all-star cast includes Faye Dunaway, Laura Gemser, Lee Grant, Oskar Werner, Sam Wanamaker, Lynne Frederick, Luther Adler, Wendy Hiller, Julie Harris, Nehemiah Persoff, Paul Koslo, Jonathan Pryce, Max von Sydow, Malcolm McDowell, Orson Welles, James Mason, Katharine Ross, José Ferrer, Ben Gazzara, Fernando Rey, Janet Suzman and Denholm Elliott. The film was produced by ITC Entertainment. It was also the final film starring Oskar Werner.

Plot

Based on factual events, the story told of the SS "St. Louis", which departed from Hamburg, Germany, carrying 937 Jews from Germany to Havana, Cuba, in 1939. By this time, the Jews had suffered the rise of anti-Semitism and realised that this might be their last chance to escape. The film details the emotional journey of the passengers who gradually become aware that their passage has been an exercise in propaganda and that they were never intended to disembark in Cuba. Rather, they were to be used as examples before the world, the point illustrated by a comment made by a Nazi official who says that when the whole world has refused to accept them as refugees, no country can blame Germany for the fate of the Jews.

The government of Cuba refuses entry to the passengers, and as the liner waits near the Florida coastline, they learn that the United States has also rejected them. They have no choice but to return to Europe. The captain tells a confidante that he has received a letter signed by 200 passengers saying they will join hands and jump into the sea, rather than return to Germany. He says he is intending to deliberately run the liner aground on a reef off the southern coast of England.

Shortly before the film's end, it is revealed that the governments of the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and The Netherlands have agreed to accept a share of the passengers as refugees. As the film characters cheer and clap, a footnote at the end of the film discusses the fate of some of the film's major characters, and reveals that more than 600 of the ship's 937 passengers ultimately lost their lives in Nazi concentration camps. (Others have estimated that the survival rate was much greater, with a probable 709 survivors and 227 killed. See the relevant article.)

In 1998 the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum attempted to trace survivors from the voyage.

Awards

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards:
*Best Supporting Actress - Lee Grant
*Best Original Score - Lalo Schifrin
*Best Writing Adapted Screenplay - David Butler and Steve Shagan.

It was nominated for six Golden Globe awards including "Best Picture" and Katharine Ross won the award for "Best Actress in a Supporting Role".

ee also

*Anti-semitism
*The Holocaust
*Jewish refugees
*Refugees
*SS St. Louis

References

External links

*
* [http://www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/antiholo/voyage.html Essay on the true story of the fate of the S.S. "St. Louis" passengers]
* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/stlouis.html Jewish Virtual Library - The Tragedy of the S.S. "St. Louis"]
* [http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/stlouis.htm 20th Century History article]
* [http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/faqs/St_Louis.html Article discussing the role of the U.S. Coast Guard]