ca-006572-e0016
type: RecordSet
biographical history: The MS St. Louis was a German diesel-powered transatlantic liner which was used as a luxury cruise ship for the Hamburg-America Line which regularly sailed from Hamburg to Halifax and New York. In 1939, the MS St. Louis was carrying over 900 German Jewish refugees when it was refused entry in Cuba, the United States and Canada and forced to return to Europe. The ship departed from Hamburg on May 13th, 1939, captained by Gustav Schroder. Most of the 937 passengers were Jewish, and were in possession of what they believed to be legal landing permits for Cuba which they planned to use temporarily before obtaining American visas. In reality, Cuban immigration official Benitez Gonzalez had used his position to sell illegitimate landing permits, which were nullified by the pro-fascist Cuban government amid rising anti-Semitism in Cuba while the MS St. Louis while completing its transatlantic crossing. When the ship arrived in Havana on May 27, 1939, it was not permitted to dock, and was eventually asked to leave Cuban waters with most of the passengers still on board. Captain Schroder, determined not to return his passengers to Germany, sailed around the coast of Florida in hopes that U.S. authorities would permit the refugees entry but instead the ship was trailed by the coast guard and not permitted to approach the shore. Despite appeals from sympathetic American citizens and organizations President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s government refused to allow the refugees to land, citing existing immigration guidelines. Halifax was the last port of asylum available in North America, and while Captain Schroder made no appeals directly to the Canadian government, as the ship’s plight became more widely known within Canada efforts were made to convince Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s government to allow them into the country. Leaders of the Canadian Jewish community made appeals to the government, and a group of 27 prominent Canadian citizens in Toronto led by clergyman and histori…
date: November 2018
has or had holder: ca-006572
has or had identifier: 1
has record set type: Fonds
identifier: E0016
note: Uncertain why their item was designated an individual fonds. Should probably be added to the reference collection as a single item. TG December 2022.
record resource extent: item
scope and content: Fonds consists of one folder containing a metal pin commemorating the MS St. Louis (November 7, 2018) and an invitation to a live broadcast of the government’s statement of apology for the MS St. Louis incident, written in French and English
title: MS St. Louis