In 1939, a German ship set out on a promising voyage that was supposed to end with Jewish refugees entering America and escaping intolerance. The voyage did not end that way.
The St. Louis, named after the French king, first docked off the coast of Havana where it was to wait until the émigrés could enter America. However, the 930 Jewish passengers on the ship were denied entry into Cuba. The St. Louis then traveled to Florida where once again it was refused entry. With no other choice, the St. Louis turned around and headed back to Europe.
The voyage of the St. Louis has become a symbol of America’s indifference to the persecution and atrocities perpetrated on the Jewish people in Europe before the United States’ entry into World War II. Through news reports, a book and a Hollywood film, the St. Louis has achieved status as a cultural milestone and is an important reminder of Jewish struggles during that time. But Scott Miller, director of curatorial affairs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum wanted to look past the symbolism of the event and find the real people that lived through this so called “Voyage of the Damned.” So he began his research 10 years ago.
“It’s such a well-known story, what happened during the voyage,” Miller said. “What most people don’t know is what happened to the people after that. This project was born out of an effort to find out what were the fates of the people on board.”
The research eventually became part of a book, “Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust,” which Miller co-authored. He will be in Kansas City Thursday, Aug. 22, to discuss the book and the Museum’s project to uncover the fate of every refugee aboard the St. Louis. The free presentation, which begins at 6 p.m. and is open to the public, will take place at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library.
The event is being chaired by Sam Devinki, Debbie Sosland-Edelman and Karen Pack. Honorary co-chairs are Leawood Mayor Peggy Dunn, former Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton and Karen Herman, former president of the board of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education. RSVP by Aug. 19 at www.ushmm.org/events/kansascity or contact Jed Silberg in the Museum’s Midwest Regional Office at 847-433-8099 or at .
“When people hear about the St. Louis they have an image in their minds,” Miller said. “However there were real people who suffered through this. We thought their story needed to be told.”
Devinki, who is the son of Holocaust survivors and along with his family has been a dedicated supporter of the USHMM since its inception, worked hard to bring this program to Kansas City because he thinks it’s very important for people to understand the lessons of the Holocaust.
“If people are knowledgeable they know what to look for and when to stand up and say this is not right,” Devinki said.
He said one of the museum’s two goals is to teach the lessons of the Holocaust so that the younger generation knows what can happen if you don’t stand up against hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism. He believes this program will help do that.
“That’s why this program is important. It’s a primary example of what indifference can do. Basically many people on that ship were murdered by the Nazis because the United States wouldn’t give them refuge. People need to understand what happened there so that when the situation happens again we don’t ignore it the way it was ignored in 1939,” Devinki said.
A detective story
Miller’s own journey to discover the fates of those aboard the St. Louis began when a man walked into the Holocaust Memorial Museum and said he had been a child on the ship. He wanted to know what had happened to some of the other passengers. Miller and the Museum agreed to help.
“We started looking through records and logs but that got us only so far. We then had to change how we looked for people,” Miller said. “It became like a detective story, talking to people and tracking down family members, going to hospitals and cemeteries.”
Miller and his partner in this project, Sarah Ogilvie, traveled from New York across Europe. It took almost 10 years but Miller is happy to report he discovered the fate of all 930 refugees. And he discovered there were some misconceptions about what happened to the passengers.
Originally it was thought that almost half of the refugees returned to Germany and were put into concentration camps. Miller found the true number to be much lower. Miller believes 254 of the refugees died in concentration camps, while hundreds of others found asylum in Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
“The majority of the passengers survived the war,” Miller said. “We were happy to let people know that and let them be known as people and not just numbers.”
Because of the years of research and information that was gathered, the Holocaust Memorial Museum now has the largest collection of artifacts associated with the St. Louis. Miller has been working with the museum since 1989, four years before the museum opened to the public, and this has been one of the biggest, and in his mind most important, projects with which he has been associated.
“I never dreamed this would become so big,” Miller said. “Touring and talking about the book has led me to some interesting places,” he said, noting that this process enabled him to meet with the deputy secretary of state.
However Miller says the most rewarding people he gets to meet and talk to about the book are those who lived it.
“We have had a number of reunions. Most of them were kids when they were on the St. Louis,” Miller said. “The survivors have been very grateful. We have brought together a lot of old friends.”
