http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005267 VOYAGE OF THE "ST. LOUIS"
On May 13, 1939, the German transatlantic liner "St. Louis" sailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba. On the voyage were 937 passengers. Almost all were Jews fleeing from the Third Reich. Most were German citizens, some were from eastern Europe, and a few were officially "stateless."
The majority of the Jewish passengers had applied for U.S. visas, and had planned to stay in Cuba only until they could enter the United States. But by the time the "St. Louis" sailed, there were signs that political conditions in Cuba might keep the passengers from landing there. The U.S. State Department in Washington, the American consulate in Havana, some Jewish organizations, and refugee agencies were all aware of the situation. Tragically, the passengers themselves were not and most would be sent back to Europe.
Since Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom of November 9-10, 1938), the Nazis had been trying to accelerate the pace of forced Jewish emigration. The German Foreign Office and Joseph Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry also hoped to use other nations' refusal to admit Jews to further the regime's anti-Jewish goals.
The owners of the "St. Louis," the Hamburg-America Line, knew even before the ship sailed that its passengers might have trouble disembarking in Cuba. But the passengers, who held landing certificates issued by the Cuban Director-General of Immigration, did not know that eight days before the ship sailed, Cuban President Federico Laredo Bru had issued a decree invalidating all landing certificates. Entry to Cuba required written authorization from Cuba's Secretaries of State and Labor and the posting of a $500 bond. (The bond was waived for U.S. tourists.)
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