WINTER PARK — In May 1939, an early and horrific moment in the Holocaust occurred when the German ocean liner St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany, to Havana, Cuba, carrying 937 passengers, nearly all them Jewish refugees.
Desperate to flee the persecution and horrors of Nazi Germany, those Jewish passengers were devastated when first Cuba’s government refused to let the ship land, and both the United States and Canada also proved unwilling to admit those anguished passengers.
This historic incident, which served as the basis for the 1976 movie Voyage Of The Damned with Faye Dunaway and Oskar Werner, has been well documented as an early tragic moment in the Holocaust. What is less known is the role that Florida played in this appalling case.
As part of its ongoing Americans and the Holocaust Series, the Winter Park Library is hosting the program The Voyage of the St. Louis on Wednesday, Aug. 20 from 6:30-8 p.m. The moderator will be Dr. Diane Afoumado, chief of the Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the program “explores the tragic 1939 journey of the St. Louis refugee ship, including its little-known connection to Florida and its role in shaping global responses to refugees,” the library notes.
Afoumado is the author of the book The Saint Louis Odyssey Through The Eyes Of Captain Schroeder.
What Is Known About the St. Louis Refugee Ship?
Miami played a documented role in this heartbreaking incident. When the St. Louis reached Havana, the Cuban government informed the ship that their landing permits had been cancelled, and the St. Louis was ordered to leave the harbor.
The ship then sailed close the Florida coast, hoping the U.S. government would intervene and allow the liner to land in South Florida and let its passengers come on shore. But as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum notes, the government refused.
“Sailing so close to Florida that they could see the lights of Miami, some passengers on the St. Louis cabled President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for refuge,” the Museum notes. “Roosevelt never responded. The State Department and the White House had decided not to take extraordinary measures to permit the refugees to enter the United States.”
The Florida History Network notes that this incident received coverage in the Miami Daily News on June 4, 1939.
“The MS St. Louis anchored four miles off Miami Beach and was sighted by the Coast Guard, which immediately dispatched boats to the ship, as recounted in the Miami Daily News,” FHN notes. FHN quotes from that newspaper’s article, which noted that “The coast guard patrol boat C-244, out of Fort Lauderdale, stood by the ship as it slanted down the coast, barely making way, to prevent any possibility of attempts of refugees to jump off and swim ashore.”
The ship was forced to return to Europe, including to Germany, where 254 St. Louis passengers were eventually killed in the Holocaust.
The Winter Park Library’s program will explore in greater detail Florida’s impact on this historic and devastating tragedy.
Where I Can See The Voyage of The St. Louis?
The Voyage of the St. Louis is being presented at The Winter Park Library, 1052 W. Morse Boulevard in downtown Winter Park. Call (407) 623-3300 for more information.
The lecture will be on Wednesday, Aug. 20 from 6:30–8 p.m. and is considered appropriate for adults ages 18 and older. Registration is required for this event and will close on Aug. 20 at 10:39 a.m.
This program is being done in partnership with the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida in Maitland. If the library’s parking lot is full, the library recommends that attendees park at Valencia College’s Winter Park campus, 850 W. Morse Boulevard, “and enjoy a short, scenic walk through of Martin Luther King Jr. Park to the library.”
Florida also teaches about the Holocaust in its public schools and has since 1994, when the Florida Legislature passed the Holocaust Education Bill requiring all school districts in the Sunshine State to to include lessons on the Holocaust in grades 5-12.
Michael Freeman is an Orlando journalist, playwright and author of the terrifying book “Bloody Rabbit”. Contact him at Freelineorlando@gmail.com.
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