In the 70 years since that tragic voyage, the story of the St. Louis has been told and retold, taught and studied, researched and pondered. It has been to Hollywood, in the 1976 film "Voyage of the Damned," starring Faye Dunaway. It was the subject of a U.S. Senate resolution expressing remorse over what happened. It was featured in a full-page political cartoon in the Washington Post (by Art Spiegelman of "Maus" fame and this author). It was the focus of a project by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to trace the fate of each of the more than 900 passengers.
FDR did that
I’m not certain that it was FDR as much as the Southern Democrats who were a key part of FDR’s coalition. The Secretary of State at the time - Cordell Hull (a southerner) - also opposed admission of the passengers into the United States.