- Headline
-
Cuba Orders Jew Refugee Ship to Leave
- Publication Date
- Friday, June 2, 1939
- Historical Event
-
Jewish Refugees Desperately Seek Safe Harbor
This database includes 1,676 articles about this event - Article Type
- Newspaper
- Page Section and Number
- 1
- Author/Byline
- --
- Article Text
- HAVANA, Cuba, June 1.—AP—A tragic shipload of 917 German Jewish refugees tonight faced return to the land from which they fled. President Federico Laredo Bru coupled an order for their ship to leave with a threat to use gunboats if necessary to tow it from Cuban waters.
The presidential decree came during a day of uncertainty in which the captain of the German liner St. Louis, expressing fear of a "collective suicide pact" among his refugee passengers, sought in vain to have the government rescind its order against landing them.
Although the president directed the St. Louis to leave "within the day," and marines were held ready to carry out his orders, it was understood the liner was granted a delay until it could refuel and take on provisions for the return voyage to Germany.
The Cuban Treasury department, instructed to carry out Laredo Bru's order, was said to have granted Luis Clasing, agent for the Hamburg-American line, until 6 p. m. tomorrow to get the ship out of port.
It was held probable in port circles, however, that Capt. Gustav Shroeder of the St. Louis would try to complete the task of taking on stores and get under way early tomorrow while his passengers are asleep.
This move was understood to be under consideration because of the fear that the refugees, including 500 women and 150 children, might be driven to desperation and try to jump overboard. - History Unfolded Contributor
- Karen L.
- Location of Research
- Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)
Learn More about this Historical Event: Jewish Refugees Desperately Seek Safe Harbor
- Voyage of the St. Louis (Encyclopedia Article)
- Voyage of the St. Louis (Online Exhibition)
- Voyage of the St. Louis (Animated Map)
- Seeking Refuge in Cuba, 1939 (Encyclopedia Article)
- Refuge in Latin America (Encyclopedia Article)
- United States and the Holocaust (Encyclopedia Article)
Bibliography
Baumel, Judith Tydor. Unfulfilled Promise: Rescue and Resettlement of Jewish Refugee Children in the United States, 1934–1945. Juneau, AK: Denali Press, 1990.
Breitman, Richard, and Alan M. Kraut. American Refugee Policy and European Jewry, 1933–1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
Feingold, Henry L., Bearing Witness: How America and Its Jews Responded to the Holocaust. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995.
Gurock, Jeffrey S., ed. America, American Jews, and the Holocaust. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Hamerow, Theodor. While We Watched: Europe, America, and the Holocaust. New York: Norton, 2008.
Lipstadt, Deborah E., Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933–1945. New York: Free Press, 1986.
Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1938–1941. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.
Zucker, Bat-Ami. In Search of Refuge: Jews and US Consuls in Nazi Germany, 1933–1941. London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2001.
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