resolution recognizing June 6, 2009, as the date of the M.S. St. Louis' return to Europe
Congress is going to recognize one of our historic fails; in which the congress will recognize the part of the US in denying refugees from Nazi control Germany. Congress has passed a resolution recognizing June 6, 2009, as the date of the M.S. St. Louis' return to Europe.
"In May, 1939, an ocean liner called the M.S. St. Louis left Hamburg, Germany, which was at the time occupied by the Nazi party. She was headed for Havana with nearly a thousand passengers -- and almost all of them were Jewish refugees. The Cuban government only let 28 of the passengers into the country, and so the ship moved on to Florida, in hopes that the remaining 900-odd people would be welcomed into the U.S. as political refugees. They were turned away. On June 4, 1939, the St. Louis was also refused permission to land her passengers under orders from President Roosevelt as the ship waited between Florida and Cuba.
The St. Louis then tried to enter Canada but was denied permission as well. The ship returned to Europe, first stopping in the United Kingdom, where 288 of the passengers disembarked. After much negotiation, the remaining 619 passengers disembarked at Antwerp; 224 were accepted by France, 214 by Belgium, and 181 into the Netherlands."
Scott Miller and Sarah Ogilvie of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
"Of the 620 St. Louis passengers who returned to continental Europe, we determined that eighty-seven were able to emigrate before Germany invaded western Europe on May 10, 1940. Two hundred and fifty-four passengers in Belgium, France and the Netherlands after that date died during the Holocaust. Most of these people were murdered in the killing centers of Auschwitz and Sóbibor; the rest died in internment camps, in hiding or attempting to evade the Nazis. Three hundred sixty-five of the 620 passengers who returned to continental Europe survived the war"
"In May, 1939, an ocean liner called the M.S. St. Louis left Hamburg, Germany, which was at the time occupied by the Nazi party. She was headed for Havana with nearly a thousand passengers -- and almost all of them were Jewish refugees. The Cuban government only let 28 of the passengers into the country, and so the ship moved on to Florida, in hopes that the remaining 900-odd people would be welcomed into the U.S. as political refugees. They were turned away. On June 4, 1939, the St. Louis was also refused permission to land her passengers under orders from President Roosevelt as the ship waited between Florida and Cuba.
The St. Louis then tried to enter Canada but was denied permission as well. The ship returned to Europe, first stopping in the United Kingdom, where 288 of the passengers disembarked. After much negotiation, the remaining 619 passengers disembarked at Antwerp; 224 were accepted by France, 214 by Belgium, and 181 into the Netherlands."
Scott Miller and Sarah Ogilvie of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
"Of the 620 St. Louis passengers who returned to continental Europe, we determined that eighty-seven were able to emigrate before Germany invaded western Europe on May 10, 1940. Two hundred and fifty-four passengers in Belgium, France and the Netherlands after that date died during the Holocaust. Most of these people were murdered in the killing centers of Auschwitz and Sóbibor; the rest died in internment camps, in hiding or attempting to evade the Nazis. Three hundred sixty-five of the 620 passengers who returned to continental Europe survived the war"