Question

What was the “St.Louis Affair”?

Answer 1

Hint: The Hamburg-American Line operated St. Louis, which is a transatlantic luxury liner. It set sail from Hamburg, Germany, on May 13, 1939, for Havana, Cuba, a famous stopover for refugees seeking to immigrate to the US. There were 937 passengers and 231 crew members on board.

Complete answer:
The majority of the passengers were Jews leaving Germany due to increasing safety concerns; six months ago, Nazis had targeted Jews. The passengers had received landing certificates, allowing them to reach Cuba, where most of them would wait for their US visas to be approved.

However, there were signs before the ship left that the passengers would not be welcomed. Cuban President Federico Laredo signed a decree in early May nullifying the passengers' landing certificates. Many Cubans backed his decision, fearing that the refugees would fight for employment as the nation struggled through the Great Depression. Rumors that the Jewish passengers were communists and terrorists created mass outrage, which Nazi agents spread some claim on the island.

St. Louis arrived on May 27, 1939, against this backdrop. The Cuban government allowed 28 passengers to disembark who had the proper documentation but declined to let the other 908 passengers do so. Later, on June 2, Laredo ordered the St. Louis to depart Cuban waters.

Schröder (the captain onboard) sailed for Florida after waiting several days off the coast of Cuba. The US government, on the other hand, declined to accept the refugees, citing the country's annual immigration limit. The refugees were also denied entry by the Canadian government. The Nazi government used the plot as propaganda to support its anti-Jewish actions.

Laredo called an end to the negotiations on June 6, 1939. With provisions running low, the St. Louis set sail for Europe later, arriving in Antwerp on June 17. England, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium decided to take the refugees after talks led by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. By June 20, all of the passengers had disembarked in St. Louis.

Note: The St. Louis Affair was well-documented in Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts' novel Voyage of the Damned in 1974. It was later adapted into a film in 1976.