- Headline
-
German Refugees Held At Ports For Lack Of Papers
- Sub-Headline
- Only 16 Out of 943 Have Necessary Credentials to Land in Cuba
- Publication Date
- Tuesday, May 30, 1939
- Historical Event
-
Jewish Refugees Desperately Seek Safe Harbor
This database includes 1,676 articles about this event - Article Type
- Page Section and Number
- 1
- Author/Byline
- AP
- Article Text
- WASHINGTON, May 30. (AP) — While three transatlantic ships sought today to discharge more than one thousand unwanted German refugees at Caribbean ports, word reached here that the inter-governmental committee for refugees in London had requested the reich to exercise stricter control over their departure.
FEW PREPARED
The committee asked Nazi officials not to let refugees leave unless it was certain they would be permitted to land in the country of destination.
From New York came word that representatives of Jewish organizations expected to fly to Cuba to confer with President Laredo Bru about 927 refugees aboard the liner San Luis at Havana.
The ship arrived Saturday with 943 refugees. According to information reaching the state department, only sixteen of them have the necessary papers with which to land.
American representatives hoped to induce Cuban authorities to let the refugees land in Cuba and then go to the Isle of Pines to make their homes.
Meantime, the British liner Orduna was en route from Havana to Panama and Chile hoping to disembark seventy-two refugees whom the Cuban authorities would not permit to land after forty-eight were disembarked.
The French liner Flanders was en route to Vera Cruz, Mexico, with180 refugees after having landed thirty-two in Havana.
HOPE TO ENTER U. S.
The refugees who were disembarked in Cuba had not only the necessary permits but also $500 each to deposit with the Cuban government as a guarantee they would not become public charges.
Officials here are keenly interested in the situation, because thousands of German refugees are in Cuba on the Cuban government's understanding that they will be able to get visas for emigration to the United States.
This is not an understanding with the United States, and the likelihood is that many of the refugees will have to remain in Cuba for several years before getting on the United States quota.
Officials here do not believe that the German government is wholly at fault in letting the refugees leave with one-way passports.
In some cases the emigrants have apparently authentic visas, but when they arrive at their destination the visas are disavowed. In others the visas have been found to be fraudulent.
Latin American nations are restricting German refugees, according to information to the state department. Brazil, received only 950 in 1938. Argentina took 2500, Bolivia, 2000, Colombia 500, Chile 600, and Cuba 6000. The United States received 33,000.
Latin America's objection to admitting the refugees is that they are city workers or small merchants, whereas the countries south of the Rio Grande want agricultural workers. - History Unfolded Contributor
- Patricia P.
- Location of Research
- Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)
Learn More about this Historical Event: Jewish Refugees Desperately Seek Safe Harbor
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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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