- Headline
-
25 Child Refugees From Europe Arrive In U. S. Ahead of Santa Claus
- Sub-Headline
- Range In Age From 3 to 13
- Publication Date
- Tuesday, December 24, 1940
- Historical Event
-
Refugee Children Arrive from France, More to Follow
This database includes 391 articles about this event - Article Type
- Newspaper
- Location
- Page Section and Number
- 3
- Author/Byline
- AP
- Article Text
- Jersey City, N.J., Dec. 23—(AP)—Twenty-five children, refugees from the war in Europe, beat Santa Claus into the United States Monday—in time to enjoy their first Christmas in the homes of their American sponsors.
The youngsters, ranging in age from 3 to 13 years, arrived aboard the American Export liner Excambion. Brought to this country by the United States Committee for the Care of European Children, Inc., they were the first to be taken from continental Europe.
German-American Held.
Most of them — including Amelia, Marianne and Eveline Diamante, Czecho-Slovak triplets will be taken to Boston, under care of the Unitarian Service Committee. Names of the persons who will shelter them were not disclosed.
A 5-year-old American boy, Stephen Hawthorne, who said he was a descendant of the American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was on his way to Hingham, Mass.
The ship's master, Capt. William W. Kuhne, discussing the detaining by British authorities at Bermuda of a German-born American citizen, said there was "no use protesting" the detention of the man, Oscar Stabler, the ship's barber.
Map Called Joke.
A map reported found In Stabler's possession indicated the position of various ships in the harbor at Lisbon, Captain Kuhne said, but it was "a joke." He added that the map had been made last August by the ship's first officer after the vessel had been detained eight days by the contraband control.
Others aboard the ship reported Stabler had been detained at Lisbon previously, after taking pictures of British convoy ships, and that he had protested to the German Embassy, rather than to the American Embassy.
Accosted By Destroyer.
Of the Bermuda incident, Captain Kuhne added, "I don't believe they found anything on him. He was an excellent barber."
The captain said the Excambion was accosted about 500 miles at sea, the second day out of Lisbon, by an unidentified destroyer which signalled for the ship to identify herself and state her destination.
Three Norwegian girls arrived —to marry American men. They were Else Hvistendahl, 20, who plans to marry Benjamin McCartney of Washington; Nina Tandberg, 26, fiance of Warner Marshall, a New York broker, and Ellen Knudsen, 31, who will become the bride of Per Henry Mellross of Chicago.
The girls refused to disclose how they were enabled to leave Norway, now German-occupied.
Murray Shipley, 46-year-old American ambulance driver, of Cincinnati. Ohio, who once was reported dead, also was reluctant to discuss his adventures.
Newsmen Aboard.
"I've been in lots of concentration camps," he remarked. He was accompanied by his French wife, Madeline.
A group of foreign correspondents also was aboard. They included Elmer 'Peterson, former Associated Press Bureau chief in Budapest; Roy Porter, who was in France for the Associated Press; Wallace R. Deuel of the Chicago Daily News; Whitelaw Reid of the New York Herald Tribune and William Shirer, Berlin correspondent for the Columbia Broadcasting System. - History Unfolded Contributor
- Carlos G.
- Location of Research
- Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)
Learn More about this Historical Event: Refugee Children Arrive from France, More to Follow
- United States Committee for the Care of European Children (Americans and the Holocaust Online Exhibition)
- The Immigration of Refugee Children to the United States (Holocaust Encyclopedia)
- Martha and Waitstill Sharp (Holocaust Encyclopedia)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Refugee Aid (Holocaust Encylopedia)
- Quakers (Holocaust Encyclopedia)
- Eleanor Roosevelt (Holocaust Encyclopedia)
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