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Monday, June 13, 2022

They thought they had a ticket to freedom...

 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Just over 83 years ago this week, the MS St. Louis and most of its 937 passengers, who were largely Jewish refugees desperate to flee from Nazi persecution, were forced to return to Europe after being denied entry into Cuba, the United States, and Canada. More than a quarter of the ship’s passengers were later killed in the Holocaust. As World Refugee Day approaches on June 20, learn more about the St. Louis and how it came to symbolize the plight of refugees fleeing mass atrocities and genocide.

 

 

 

 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

 

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Images: Picture postcard of the MS St. Louis. USHMM, courtesy of Julie Klein; Portrait of Gustav Schroeder, captain of the MS St. Louis. USHMM, courtesy of Herbert & Vera Karliner; Photo of Lilly Joseph’s evening gown. USHMM, gift of Liesl Joseph Loeb; Twins Ines and Renate Spanier peer out a porthole of the MS St. Louis as the ship docks in Antwerp on June 17, 1939. Courtesy of Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris; Members of the Dingfelder family board the MS St. Louis in Hamburg, Germany. USHMM, Dingfelder and Wolff families' papers; Passengers on the MS St. Louis, including Evelyn Altman (born Evelyn Klein), front. USHMM, courtesy of Don Altman; A group of Jewish refugee children wait in the port of Lisbon to board the SS Mouzinho, which took them to the United States in 1941. USHMM, courtesy of Milton Koch

 

UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024-2126

Main telephone: 202.488.0400
TTY: 202.488.0406