[J. Further
happenings in Europe 1938-1939]
[6.29. Steamer St. Louis with 930 Jewish
refugees comes back to Europe]
[May-June 1939: St. Louis
affair: Two "Christian" Catholic Cuban rivals fight for
money from the Jewish organizations to admit 907 Jewish
refugees - return of the ship St. Louis to Europe]
Into this crisis-ridden atmosphere there burst the St.
Louis affair. The story has been told elsewhere
(End note 145: Morse, op. cit. [Morse, Arthur D.: While
Six Million Died; New York 1968], pp. 270 ff.)
and a bare outline will suffice here. The St. Louis, a
German ship of the Hamburg America Line, sailing under a
very considerate and liberal captain, Gustav Schroeder,
left Germany on May 13, 1939, with 930 Jewish emigrants.
They were all going to Havana with legal Cuban visas
issued by (p.278)
the person responsible for immigration in the Cuban
government - except for 22 persons who had decided not to
rely solely on the visas and had had them verified in Cuba
at additional cost to themselves. By the time the ship
reached Cuba, the ordinary visas had been declared
invalid. Later, the JDC committee dealing with the affair
came to the conclusion that the government of President
Bru of Cuba had never intended to permit the refugees to
land. The person who had issued the visas, a Colonel
Benites, supported the faction of the Cuban chief of
staff, Fulgencio Batista, a rival of President Bru's. Bru
apparently thought that to refuse permission for the
landing would be a good way to fight Batista, who, through
Benites, had hoped to collect large bribes from the
refugees. It may be that Bru was willing to accept the
refugees if JDC paid very large sums not only to the
government treasury but also to his private pocket - both
factions were asking for about $ 450,000 in addition to
the official ransom money of $ 500,000 to the government.
JDC was prepared to pay up to $ 500,000 to the Cubans, but
since there were no additional handouts of any size. Bru
refused to let the refugees land. Apparently the State
Department was of no great help either, because it
informed the lawyer representing JDC in Cuba, Lawrence
Berenson, that the Cubans were merely bluffing and that
JDC should not offer them too much.
(End note 146: CON-3, 6/27/39, Hyman to Baerwald)
The St. Louis affair put JDC on the horns of a very real
dilemma. JDC was painfully aware that if it paid a huge
ransom for the 907 Jews with Benites visas (one had
committed suicide), who headed back to Europe on the St.
Louis on June 6, other Latin American governments would
probably learn the lesson and exact equal if not larger
sums. The total JDC income was to rise to $ 8.1 mio. in
1939, but ransom monies of $ 1 mio. for 900 refugees would
exhaust the JDC treasury in no time. This of course was
quite apart from the fact that JDC had never agreed to pay
ransom to unscrupulous operators for innocent human
beings.
What moved JDC to go against its own better judgment was
the tremendous pressure from its contributors, who saw,
perhaps (p.279)
rightly, that this was a test case and a symbol and that
every effort had to be made to save the passengers.
Members of the JDC staff and leading laymen worked
literally around the clock to try to find places of refuge
for the ship, which was slowly making its way back across
the Atlantic to Germany. In the end Troper in Paris
contacted Max Gottschalk in Brussels and Mrs. van Tijn in
Holland who intervened with their respective governments;
in France, Jules Braunschvig went to the French Foreign
Ministry to persuade them to accept some of the refugees.
All this occurred on June 10.
In the meantime, Paul Baerwald was active in London, where
the British government also agreed to accept some of the
refugees.
Finally the St. Louis passengers were landed: 181 in
Holland, 288 in Britain, 214 in Belgium, and 224 in
France.
(End note 147: Agar, op. cit., p. 85, footnote 4)
In all these countries JDC undertook to support the St.
Louis refugees. In 1939, $ 500,000 was appropriated for
this purpose. JDC was to carry this obligation for a long
time, until those who were not deported to Nazi death
camps finally found permanent havens. (p.280)
[St. Louis affair: The
boats Flandre and Orduna also return to Europe]
During and after the
St.
Louis affair, illegal immigration into Latin
America continued. Besides the St. Louis, two small boats
arrived at Havana: the S.S.
Flandre, a French boat with 96 refugees,
and the S.S.
Orduna,
a British boat with about 40 people. Like the St. Louis
passengers, they were refused permission to land. They too
returned to Europe and were accepted by the four countries
that had received others. (p.289)
