The Voyage of the S.S. St. Louis in May, 1939

Seventy years ago this month, the SS St. Louis traveled across the Atlantic from Germany to Cuba. Owned by the Hapsburg-American line, known as Hapbag, the St. Louis was taking 936 Jews away from Nazi oppression. Many of the passengers were emigrating to the United States, planning to wait in Cuba until their quota numbers came up.

In May 1939, leaving Germany was getting more and more difficult. The Nuremburg Laws had been passed, German concentration camps were in use, Kristallnacht had happened. German Jews were subject to humiliation and violence daily. One St. Louis passenger, Aaron Pozner, had been imprisoned at Dachau in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, and released on condition of leaving Germany within two weeks. His family pooled all their resources to buy his passage. Other families did the same; some still had some resources, some got money from relatives living abroad.

The captain of the St. Louis, Gustav Schroeder, had ordered his crew to treat these passengers like any other passengers; this was necessary since Jews on other German ships were often abused. The crew obeyed. Otto Schiendick, the Ortsgruppenleiter, harassed the passengers with Nazi propaganda, but there was no violence. After years of persecution the passengers were nervous at first, but life on a luxury ocean liner soon made them more comfortable.

Otto Scheindick had another job on this trip. He was a courier for the German Secret Police, and was assigned to collect reports about the United States military from Cuban-based Hapbag employee Robert Hoffman.

The captain received word soon after setting sail that two other ships were also heading to Cuba, and he should hurry. Was there some difficulty about landing in Cuba? Captain Schroeder organized a passenger committee to come up with solutions if problems arose. Hapbag had bought tourist landing papers from Cuban official Manuel Benitez. These were sold to the passengers during the trip, for $150 each. However, the law which allowed tourists to enter Cuba had been changed before the St. Louis set sail, making the papers worthless.

There were two deaths during the voyage. An elderly passenger died and was buried. Shortly after the burial, a crew member killed himself by jumping overboard at the same spot.

Captain Schroeder's fears were realized. The day before arriving in Cuba, he received word to anchor in the harbor instead of landing at the Hapbag pier; the St. Louis passengers were not allowed to disembark. Waiting friends and relatives took boats out to greet the passengers, but were not allowed very close. After several days of mounting tension, a mentally ill passenger attempted suicide by cutting his wrists and jumping overboard. A crew member jumped in and helped get him onto a police boat and he was taken to a hospital. His wife and children had to stay on board.

Robert Hoffman meanwhile had managed to get the secret documents to Otto Scheindick, who then pushed for a quick return to Germany.

After four days of waiting, Captain Schroeder convened another meeting of the passenger committee. Two Americans were sent by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to negotiate with President Bru of Cuba. The St. Louis had to leave Cuban waters as a condition of negotiation. It circled the island, then traveled north along the Florida coast, accompanied by U.S. Coast Guard boats. The ship was not allowed to land in the United States; the passengers were denied refuge.

Meanwhile negotiator Lawrence Berenson tried to bargain for a lower fee than the %500 per passenger that was being requested. When he said he would pay the full amount, he was told he had missed a 48-hour deadline he did not know he had. The St. Louis passengers would not be allowed to land.

Captain Schroeder, concerned about diminishing food supplies, turned the St. Louis around to return to Europe. During the voyage back, the Joint Committee was able to convince France, Belgium, Holland, and England to each take a few hundred passengers so none had to return to Germany. Those in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands were afterward caught up in the conquests of those countries, and were transported to camps in the east. None survived the war.

As we mark this 70th anniversary of the St. Louis, it is important to reflect on our role in the tragedy, or perhaps at our refusal to avert the tragedy. Questions of immigration and refugee policy are in the news now as well. This country still refuses to admit the thousands of Iraqis we displaced with our invasion. A jury in Pennsylvania just acquitted the high school students who beat an illegal immigrant to death of all serious charges. The language of hate fills the airways. The story of the St. Louis is meaningless unless we learn from it, and try not to repeat the attitudes that led to that tragedy.

You can read about the St. Louis here: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/stlouis.html

There is a Holocaust memorial recording by Barbra Streisand, who sings Somewhere over a slide show of Holocaust photographs. There are numerous St. Louis photos included. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WjBuMQNqxs