“Most notoriously, in June 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish, were turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust.
Government officials from the State Department to the FBI to President F…
“Most notoriously, in June 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish, were turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust.
Government officials from the State Department to the FBI to President Franklin Roosevelt himself argued that refugees posed a serious threat to national security”
My grandparents supposedly were on a boat to Cuba and were turned away. They subsequently died in the gas camp called Chelmno, 1942. My own mother took the USS Cunard from Liverpool to the US in December 1939. What people were kept from was that the atrocities happening to Germany and Poland, started in the 1930’s. America was late to the game because communications here were totally misconstrued by our “intelligence”. Jews who were already here kept pleading with government officials about the devastation. They got letters and telegraphs from their homeland. Tragedy abound!
And the ocean liner St. Lewis in 1939
“Most notoriously, in June 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish, were turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust.
Government officials from the State Department to the FBI to President Franklin Roosevelt himself argued that refugees posed a serious threat to national security”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/us-government-turned-away-thousands-jewish-refugees-fearing-they-were-nazi-spies-180957324/
We really need an icon for "agree with you and don't like it at all".
Humility in facing our history is recognizing our mistakes and continuing on in an attempt to make this a better democracy.
❤️
And the vilification of "others" persists.
It's the key element in authoritarianism - never mind how badly we treat you, we will protect you from those terrible monster-people over there.
And, of course, it's for your own good....
Or the alternative - no matter how badly we treat you, rest assured we will treat people who don't look like you even worse.
Yes, I only read about this recently. Dark days those were. Almost nobody stood up for the Jewish population.
My grandparents supposedly were on a boat to Cuba and were turned away. They subsequently died in the gas camp called Chelmno, 1942. My own mother took the USS Cunard from Liverpool to the US in December 1939. What people were kept from was that the atrocities happening to Germany and Poland, started in the 1930’s. America was late to the game because communications here were totally misconstrued by our “intelligence”. Jews who were already here kept pleading with government officials about the devastation. They got letters and telegraphs from their homeland. Tragedy abound!
I’m so sorry about your grand parents. I can’t even imagine such horror.
Thank you, Theresa. Yes, we all were robbed.
Requisitioned by the Government, RMS “Mauretania” was armed with two 150 mm guns and some smaller weapons & was painted in battle grey.
Sailed to NYC on 10th Dec 1939 with 166 passengers and 2,000 tons of cargo. Arrived on the 16th, and was docked at Cunard's Pier 90.