The St. Louis Tragedy: A Voyage of Desperation and Hope

In 1952, Captain Herman Louis, of the St. Louis ship, once a floating hotel in post-war West Germany, decided maintenance costs surpassed its revenue. Tourism had dwindled, and mechanical costs kept rising. The shipping company decommissioned the vessel, selling its steel to cover expenses, as giant cranes dismantled it on land.

The St. Louis was relatively young — an innovative diesel vessel by Bremen Vulcan Shipyards, unlike others converted from steam. In the 1930s, it operated as a luxury cruise ship, successfully covering its costs.

However, its mechanical ordeal began near the end of World War II, on August 30, 1944, when Allied planes attacked the German city of Kiel, causing significant damage to the ship, then serving the German military. Post-war, with no budget for new ships, West Germany refurbished it for economic purposes.

But its human tragedy started years earlier. On May 13, 1939, after Kristallnacht had intensified the exodus of German Jews, 937 Jewish passengers boarded the luxury liner St. Louis to escape Nazi Germany for neutral Cuba. Stranded with visas revoked by recent political changes, they faced rejection as Cuban authorities invalidated their entry documents, signed by the ousted official Manuel Benitez Gonzalez.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to negotiate refuge for them in Cuba, proposing a $453,000 bond within 24 hours — a monumental sum at the time. Despite funds being on their way, the deadline passed, and Cuban authorities barred all but 22 Jews, who did enter Cuba, among them Rabbi Moshe Zuriel. In desperation, one passenger attempted suicide, setting off a cascade of refusals from other nations. The so-called enlightened, liberal countries denied sanctuary to Jews fleeing an openly genocidal regime. The U.S. held firm on its immigration quota, while Canada also refused appeals from notable citizens. Weeks later, the St. Louis, having circled the Americas, returned to Europe. Even the Jewish Agency wouldn't include them in its immigration quota.

Captain Gustav Schröder, a German averse to Nazi ideology, ensured the passengers’ needs were met, refusing to return them to Germany due to the dire, predictable consequences. He proposed grounding the ship off England, eventually securing entry for 288 passengers into Britain; the rest returned to Western Europe, many later captured or killed by the Nazis.

Post-war, Captain Schröder received a medal for courage from the West German government for his dedication to Jewish refugees. On November 7, 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly apologized in the Canadian House of Commons for Canada's refusal to admit the Jewish refugees. The apology came far too late and did too little. These Jewish refugees were abandoned, the ship dismantled, and history moved on.