State Dept. Apologizes for Turning Away Jews in WWII (VIDEO)

J Space ^ | 9/27/12 | Jspace Staff

[Impala64ssa]

The State Department issued an official apology to passengers of the MS St. Louis, a German steamer carrying nearly 1,000 Jewish refugees that were denied entry into the US 73 years ago.

A ceremony was held to remember those passengers, who were turned away from Cuba, America and Canada in 1939. The ship was forced back to Germany, where one-third of the refugees perished at Auschwitz.

The State Department ceremony was attended by 200 guests, including 30 Holocaust survivors. Survivors from the St. Louis were in attendance as well, sharing their story firsthand to an audience that included Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, Foreign Service Director General Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Hannah Rosenthal.

As part of the ceremony a play was presented, “The Trial of FDR,” which depicts the tough choices the US made during World War II. The play is expected to perform across America as an educational tool.

[Irish Eyes]

It is estimated that 709 of the passengers survived and 227 died. No help to FDR. Apparently the Dominican Republic was willing to accept the Jews but for some reason the captain did not try to go there after being turned away by Cuba.

First I have heard of this

[colorado tanker]

Actually, I got the sarcasm and its parody of the deniers.

Interesting that this happened so close to the most infamous Holocaust denier on the planet addressing the UN.

[YankeeinOkieville]

I remember seeing a movie based on this. Anyone recall the title?

[Homer_J_Simpson]

When the fateful journey of the St. Louis came up on the Real Time + 70 Years project in June 1939 I started a special thread and posted all related stories there. It started on June 3. There are several follow up stories posted as replies.

The Voyage of the St. Louis, June 1939.

[kearnyirish2]

Voyage of the Damned

[Homer_J_Simpson]

St. Louis ping

[kearnyirish2]

Italy resisted collaborating (there was no persecution until Germans took over the country late in the war); Spain took in many (while being painted as a Nazi ally when they were in fact neutral).

Many people had no involvement with the murders (there is no defense for those who were involved); painting with a broad brush is no better than what the Nazis did to stir people up with generalizations about Jewish people.

[ansel12]

Not posting on it doesn’t mean we didn’t catch it, it just wasn’t an interesting post.

[fso301]

Thanks Homer. Your SS St. Louis thread is very interesting.

[fso301]

OK. So how does this explain the U.S. State Department turning their backs on Jews and Israel NOW in 2012?

Because they set the precedent in 1939 with the SS St. Louis.

[YankeeinOkieville]

Yes, that sounds right. Thank You!

A well made - and when one realizes it was based on true facts - hauntingly disturbing movie.

[SargeK]

And Denmark , Sweden, Hungary, Finland, Bulgaria...

Permit me to amend my charge, and to clarify. Rather than saying “people OF the occupied countries”, I should have said “(some) people IN the occupied countries”. Plus, being occupied, complicity in the atrocities cannot fairly be attributed as a policy of their governments.

The same cannot be said of the United States, Britain and Switzerland, all of whom turned their backs on Jews who did manage to escape Europe.

[kearnyirish2]

At the end they mention that when the captain was accused of war crimes at the end of the war (they don’t clarify what they were related to), many of the surviving passengers testified on his behalf. At the time they returned to Europe, he had left them in various countries that were not occupied at that time (which should have been perfectly safe); they weren’t returned to Germany.

Very disturbing.

[kearnyirish2]

I see.

I didn’t know that about Switzerland; I thought they took some refugees in. My understanding is that after the war they simply kept property of people that had died, rather than pass it along to next of kin; I don’t know how that was resolved.

At the time these countries were closing the door on Jewish refugees, I don’t think they had any idea as to what was going to happen. I would think the (very public) Nuremberg Laws of the 1930s would have been sufficient to let the people in anyway. 75 years later, I’d love to know what went on in back-room discussions that led to those decisions.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

Not sure this matters. State frets about where Jews live today.

[AnalogReigns]

Meanwhile another “steamer” full of millions of Jews awaits alone in an ocean of hostile Muslims, waiting to be torpedoed by Iran....AND OBAMA DOES NOTHING.

[Absolutely Nobama]

On behalf of my great aunts, uncles, and cousins that I never got to meet because they were murdered at Auschwitz....(which was not a "Polish death camp", it was a Nazi death camp, regardless of what that Kenyan commie pig dropping in the White House says. None of my relatives were on the St. Louis that I know of, but I feel the need to speak for them on this issue.)

APOLOGY NOT ACCEPTED.

This stinks of politics. This isn't heart felt, if it were, Obamugabe and his brood wouldn't be treating Bibi like he was an annoying zit. This is race baiting that I reject to my very core.

As a Jew, I don't want or need phony apologies. The only thing I want is a government that respects my religious beliefs and doesn't trample all over them, by forcing me to pay for abortions, accept homosexual "marriage", etc.

The past is the past. All of the apologies in the world aren't going to right the wrong that happened to the passengers on the St. Louis, just like all the apologies in the world will never right the wrong of slavery, or how the Indians were treated, or how Americans of Japanese descent were rounded up by FDR and his goons. It's all just pandering. (Interesting side note, the Dims were on the wrong side of every issue mentioned here. Cowinkydink ? I think not.)

We would do so much better as a society if we could learn from history and stop apologizing for it. "Apologies" like these aren't meant to unite, they're designed to divide.

[Absolutely Nobama]

Another “You gotta see it to believe it” ping!

After booing God and Jerusalem at the DNC and treating Bibi like an annoying pimple, the Dims are now pandering to us.

Wow.

[MestaMachine]

Us who? They are singing to their choir. I owe them no allegiance, and if THEY are too dense or leftist to not understand they are being made fun of and mocked, who am I to change their mind?

[Absolutely Nobama]

You got that right, MM!

OOOORAH!