Video: 'The Doomed Voyage of the St Louis Documentary'

(Sunday, June 4, 1939) — “Sailing so close to Florida that they could see the lights of Miami,” 907 passengers aboard MS St. Louis, most of them Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany, arrived off the American coast today, only to be denied entry into the United States.

St. Louis had set sail from Hamburg to Cuba on May 13, 1939. Although passengers had purchased legal travel visas, they could not enter Cuba either as tourists (as laws related to tourist visas had recently been changed) or as refugees seeking political asylum.

For six days, they waited amidst bureaucratic wrangling. In the end, only 28 were permitted to get off in Cuba (a 29th was admitted after attempting suicide).

St. Louis then crossed the Florida strait, arriving off the coast today and hoping for better results in the United States. Passengers sent President Franklin Roosevelt an urgent telegram, pleading to be admitted into the country. Roosevelt never responded.

Secretary of State Cordell Hull urged Roosevelt to reject the refugees, sending Coast Guard cutters to be sure that nobody jumped overboard and swam ashore.

Two days later, on June 6, 1939, the St. Louis was finally permitted to land in western European countries rather than return to Nazi Germany. Jewish organizations had negotiated with four European nations to accept the passengers.

Great Britain took 288, but the other 619 (one man died during the voyage) were taken by France, Belgium and the Netherlands — countries that would fall to the Nazis when Germany invaded Western Europe the following year. Of those, just 87 were able to emigrate before the invasion. Of the rest, 254 were lost in the Holocaust.