From the Star-Ledger editorial, Tuesday January 31, 2017:
“Slamming the borders shut to all refugees may be the most heartless move by an American president since Franklin Roosevelt turned away Jews fleeing the Nazis in 1939.”
Where were the US newspapers, the protesters, the objections in Congress when the surrealistic voyage of the MS St. Louis, a German ocean liner, which left Hamburg, Germany, began on May 13, 1939? Captained by Gustav Schroder, the ship carried almost 940 passengers, most of them Jewish refugees. The voyage across the Atlantic was pleasurable. The Captain and staff treated the fleeing passengers as honored guests, well-aware that his respectful dealings with the passengers would not be approved.
The ship was heading for Cuba where the majority of the passengers hoped to depart. They had purchased legal visas which, unbeknown to the travelers before they left Germany, were invalidated on the grounds that the laws regarding visas had been changed. Nor were they accepted as refugees seeking political asylum. Only a few who could legally enter the United States were able to land in Cuba.
What to do? Captain Schroeder heroically did all he could: phone calls, cables, wandering up the coast, hoping that the United States would accept the passengers. Evidence shows that the Secretary of State Cordell Hull advised President Franklin Roosevelt to not accept the Jewish passengers. Coast Guard ships patrolled the coast to make sure that Captain Schroeder stayed off the coast and did not try to ground his ship and its desperate passengers.
The Canadian government was asked to let the ship dock. However a Canadian official who did not support Jewish immigration persuaded the government to refuse the ship entry. His family apologized years later.
Unable to find a safe haven in North America, Captain Schroeder refused to bring his ship back to Germany until all the passengers were given entry to a European country other than Germany. The ship docked in Belgium on June 17, 1939 with most of the passengers still on board. The United Kingdom, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands took in the passengers. However, their safety was short-lived. By May 1940 all the Jews of continental Europe were in danger again.
Despite Schroeder’s efforts, ultimately it is estimated that at least 250 of the 620 passengers who stayed in continental Europe were victims of the Nazi terror.
After 1940, Captain Schroeder was assigned desk work. He was released from de-Nazification on the basis of testimony from some of the passengers on the St. Louis. He died in 1959. Captain Schroeder was named as a Righteous Among the Nations in 1993.
As for the St. Louis, it became a German naval ship, was heavily damaged in 1944, was converted to a hotel ship in 1946 and was ultimately sold for scrap in 1952.
The story of the St. Louis has been the inspiration for a film, several novels, an opera, and non-fiction studies.
While the parallel to today’s American response to refugees is not totally the same, there is enough similarity that the story of the St. Louis should be a precautionary tale and lesson for today.
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