Download “Voyage of the Damned”

“Voyage of the Damned”
-journey of the St. Louis 1939
The St. Louis
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German Ocean liner
May 1939
Destination Cuba
930 Jewish refugees,
mostly German
• Escape from Nazi
oppression
• Expensive
• Most immigrants hoped to stay in Cuba for a
while and eventually go to the United States
Havana, Cuba – denied entry
• Captain Shroeder
• German, non-Jewish,
anti-Nazi
• After Cuba, tried
United States and
Canada
• Ship returned to
Europe
• Captain Schroder refused to bring the ship
back to Germany.
• Instead he docked in Antwerp, Belgium
• Negotiated bringing passengers to other
European counties
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United Kingdom – 288
France- 224
Belgium – 214
The Netherlands – 181
They appeared to be safe from Hitler’s
persecution.
Antwerp, Belgium
• The following year, Germany invaded The
Netherlands, Belgium and France
• The former passengers were once again
under Nazi rule.
• Captain Schroder returned to Germany
and survived the war.
• Order of Merit from the Federal Republic
of Germany
• Named as one of the “Righteous Among
Nations” at the Yad Veshem Holocaust
Museum in Israel.
• Of the 620 passengers who disembarked
at Antwerp, 254 died in the Holocaust,
mostly at Auschwitz and Sobibor