This week, 70 years ago, the S.S. St. Louis, having completed its trans-Atlantic voyage from Germany, sat in Havana Harbor, waiting to discharge its Jewish passengers to begin a new life free of German persecution.  Its odyssey was immortalized in the 1976 movie, “Voyage of the Damned,” based on the 1974 book of the same name. The film sported an all-star cast, including Faye Dunaway, Lee Grant, Oskar Werner, Sam Wanamaker, Julie Harris, Max von Sydow as Captain Schroeder, Malcolm McDowell, Orson Wells, José Ferrer as Señor Benítez, James Mason, Katherine Ross, Ben Gazzara, Denholm Elliot as Abwher’s Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and Fernando Rey as Cuban President Brú.
    The St. Louis was built in Bremen for the Holland-American Line, to be used as a passenger ship on the Hamburg to New York route. It was launched in May 1928, with its maiden voyage coming 13 months later. It weighed 16,732 tons, was 574 feet long and had a speed of 16 knots. It had a capacity of 973 passengers divided into three classes and a crew of 231.
    After Kristallnacht, more and more Jews were deciding to leave the intolerance and persecution of the German Reich. But, as the Evían Conference had demonstrated, the previous year, not many countries were willing to accept Jewish refugees. The United States Congress had adopted a quota, restricting the number of Jews that could be admitted in a year. Even then, the government was not even admitting the amount authorized by the statute. Many German Jews went to Cuba, to wait until they could obtain entry to the U.S.  The United States accepted fewer Jewish refugees than Switzerland.
    In early 1939, the Cuban government enacted Decree 55 which required refugees to obtain visas and post a $500 bond in order to enter the island nation. But no such requirements were required for tourists. The Cuban Director-General of Immigration, Manuel Benítez González, had determined that the two categories - “refugee” and “tourist” - were not defined. Señor Benítez began selling landing permits to tourists who were really refugees. The shipping companies accommodated and purchased the permits to sell them with passage as a “package” to their customers, most of whom were only going to stay on the island until they could obtain entrance into the United States. Señor Benítez was making a fortune, by charging $150 per landing permit.
    At 8:00 P.M., on May 13, 1939, the St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, with a full complement of passengers and crew. As the ship moved into the Atlantic, the passengers began enjoying the amenities - swimming pools, movies, and lots of good food. But, in the Cuban capital, a glitch was developing. The President of Cuba, Dr. Federico Laredo Brú, and other members of the government, unhappy with Señor Benítez’ scheme - and his unwillingness to share - moved to close the loophole, by, on May 5, adopting Decree 937. The effect was, that by the time the St. Louis sailed, its passengers’ landing permits, for which they had paid an inflated price, were invalid.
    There were other reasons that influenced the Cuban government. Like the rest of the world, Cuba was struggling with the debilitating effects of the Great Depression, and high unemployment. Two Cuban newspapers, Diario de la Marina and Avances, published articles accusing the St. Louis’ passengers of being Communists. The papers were owned by the Rivero and Zayas families, who had supported Generalísimo Francisco Franco in the recently concluded Spanish Civil War. On May 8, more than 40,000 Cubans gathered in La Habana to protest the Jews’ immigration into their country. The crowd was addressed by Cuban Congressman Primitivo Rodríguez Rodríguez, who urged them, in a speech broadcast on Cuban radio, to, “...fight the Jews until the last one is driven out.”
    On Friday, May 26, the ship’s captain, Gustav Schroeder, received a telegram from Luis Clasing, the Hamburg-American representative in Havana, informing him that the ship could not dock at the company pier, but rather, would have to anchor in the harbor.  Even this had been a concession by President Brú, since the passengers, and therefore the ship, weren’t in compliance with Cuban law. The ship arrived in Havana harbor early Saturday morning. At 3:00 A.M., the Cuban pilot boarded, but could not, or would not, answer any questions. Later that morning Cuban police and immigration officials boarded the ship, but they also left without answering any questions.
    In the meantime, Clasing was meeting with Señor Benítez, who thought that $250,000 should convince the president to soften his position. Whether this would have done the trick, we’ll never know, for Clasing refused to pay. The company had already paid for landing permits for these passengers and many “bonuses” for Señor Benítez, and didn’t feel that it should be held up for more.
    There was a subplot. Unbeknownst to the Captain, a member of his crew, Otto Schiendick, was a secret courier for Abwehr, the German spy agency. He was charged with, on this trip, picking up secret documents about the U.S. military from the Abwehr agent in Cuba, Robert Hoffman. The code name for this mission was “Operation Sunshine.”  Now, because of the semi-quarantine, in which the St. Louis found itself, the two Germans were having difficulty making the exchange.
    On Monday, while Clasing was dealing with immigration authorities, Hoffman was allowed to go aboard the ship in his place, but was not allowed to carry anything on board. There were 250 people awaiting passage back to Germany, from Cuba, so Clasing was trying to get the Cubans to, at least, allow 250 passengers to disembark, so that the outbound passengers would have a place on the return trip.
    After he gained access to the ship, Hoffman approached the Captain and told him of “Operation Sunshine,” and “convinced” him to allow shore leave to some of the crew, including Schiendick, so the exchange was made. Now, however, Schiendick was in a hurry to return to the Fatherland, and put pressure on the Captain to do so. Meanwhile, the St. Louis continued to sit in Havana harbor, while all the world watched.
    The U.S. Ambassador met with the Cuban Foreign Minister, who explained that the Cuban Cabinet would meet on Wednesday to decide the matter. At its meeting, the Cabinet decided that no passengers would be permitted to disembark, even to make room for those who had booked passage back to Germany. The next day, two Americans from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee - the “Joint” - arrived in Havana and persuaded the Cuban government to reopen negotiations. However, Dr. Brú insisted that the ship leave Cuban waters before he would discuss the matter further. He ordered the ship to depart within three hours. When the Captain protested that he could not possibly comply, the President granted a reprieve until Friday, June 2, at 10:00 A.M.  At the appointed time, the St. Louis sailed from Havana harbor into the Straits of Florida, where it milled around waiting for the negotiations to bear fruit. The Cubans wanted $500,000, which was the cost under current Cuban law. Eventually, negotiations failed.
    Word reached the ship that President Roosevelt had denied the ship permission to enter the U.S.  Initially, he had been willing to allow entry, but under pressure from Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who had been a Senator from Tennessee prior to his appointment, and with the threat that Southern Democrats would withhold their support as the President embarked on his quest for an unprecedented third term, F.D.R. caved.
    The St. Louis then requested permission to enter Canada, but that country refused, as well. Having no other alternative, it returned to Europe. On June 10, Belgium agreed to admit some of the passengers. Three days later, France, Great Britain, and Holland agreed to take the remainder. The ship first stopped in England, on June 16, where 288 of its passengers where allowed to disembark. From there, the St. Louis sailed to Antwerp, where the remaining 619 passengers disembarked. Belgium accepted 214, France, 224 and Holland, 181. Twenty-nine passengers had managed to disembark at Havana. Two were Cuban nationals, four were Spanish citizens, and 22 had valid U.S. visas. One had attempted suicide and was admitted to a Cuban hospital.
    Those who were accepted by Belgium were taken by special train to Brussels. Those who did not have family in the country, were then taken to a camp in Liege until they could be settled. Those passengers bound for Holland were transferred to the Dutch ship Jan van Arkel and transported to Rotterdam and placed in a refugee center. Those bound for France were transported, by ship, to Boulogne. They arrived on June 20 and the next day, were transported to destinations in France. Since the Reich had prohibited them from taking any money when they left, they were all penniless.
    All but one of the passengers allowed to disembark in England survived the war. That person was killed in an air raid in 1940. The statistics for the remainder are not so good. Before the German conquest of Western Europe, 87 managed to emigrate. Of the remainder, 254 died in the ensuing Holocaust.
    The St. Louis debacle had been a propaganda triumph for the Reich. Those countries who were criticizing it for its treatment of the Jews, were exposed as hypocrites.
    Captain Schroeder is  recognized as one of the “Righteous Among Nations” at the Vad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.


Mr. Wimbrow writes from Ocean City, Maryland, where he practices law representing those persons accused of criminal and traffic offenses, and those persons who have suffered a personal injury through no fault of their own.