Trudy Gold
The Voyage of the St. Louis, Part 2
Trudy Gold - The Voyage of the St. Louis, Part 2
- Well, good afternoon everyone from gloomy London, and I hope you’re all okay. What I’m going to talk about today is the continuation of the terrible story of the St. Louis, and I’ve had some wonderful emails from some of you who had relatives on the ship or could give me more information. And it’s so valuable because sometimes some of your stories are things that cannot be read in the book. And what I did in the first session was actually to really look at the buildup to things that were happening in Nazi Germany. And it’s in May, 1939 that the German liner, the St. Louis, sails from Hamburg to Havana. There are 937 passengers onboard. They’re nearly all German-Jewish refugees, and they have visas to Cuba. The point is that the visas are going to be revoked, and as a result, the passengers will not be allowed to disembark. We’re going to see that the Joint, the extraordinary Joint, that wonderful organisation that’s still so important today, it failed to persuade the Cuban government to allow them to land. Now, most of the passengers were hoping to go on to America, and most of ‘em had applied for American visas. So important to remember that since Kristallnacht, the Nazis had tried everything they could to accelerate Jewish departure. And as I’ve already told you, we’ve got a serious issue when we look at all this period of history. One of the most tragic aspects to the whole story is that German and Austrian Jewry and possibly Czech Jewry could have been saved in its entirety if the countries of the world had let them in. Once we get to Poland, it’s a very complicated story, but the ifs and buts of history, but there’s still a proviso on this. What I’m going to talk about today is what the Cubans didn’t do, and particularly what the Americans didn’t do.
But remember, they are not the perpetrators. But in the field of human behaviour, these kind of presentations, and we’re going to see that there are some very good people and there’s going to be some very evil people and also some indifferent people, but what these presentations do to me, they make me really think about what it means to be a human being and what duty of care we have to other people because it is in extreme times that we are called. And basically, I suggested to you on Tuesday that the Evian Conference, when the countries of the free world came together with the wonderful James McDonald, who was Commissioner for Refugees. He so wanted to help. It was Roosevelt who called the conference. Roosevelt, who I’m going to suggest to you is very cynical about all of this. And their decision was to, would they do anything about the fate of German Jewry? Because what Hitler was doing was accelerating. Hitler wanted a Judenrein Reich. And please don’t forget that Jews were allowed out of Germany right up until October, 1941, which is after the invasion of Russia. Don’t forget, the invasion of Russia is on June the 22nd, 1941, and that’s when the murders begin. That is when the plan to murder the Jews of Europe comes into being with the Einsatzgruppen. Yes, of course, in the ghettos, they have been milked, they’ve been ill-treated. Many died of starvation, many died in the most appalling condition, but it’s when the decision is made. So it’s important to remember that at this stage, Hitler is accelerating the level of hostility in Germany. He’s robbing the Jews blind and he’s letting them out, but they’ve got to find somewhere to go. So much so, so important is this whole effort that Eichmann set up an immigration department in Vienna and in Berlin.
And there was another very strange incident at the beginning, in January, 1939. Arthur Rugle, who was an American-Jewish lawyer and a Zionist, he received most extraordinary correspondence from Schacht, the head of the Reichsbank, offering to sell the remaining 1/3 of German Jewry. By the time he realised it was serious, the war overtakes because at this stage, the Germans didn’t yet know what they were going to do. They were even playing around with a Madagascar Plan. This had actually been a plan put forward by the French in the late 30s. The Eastern European, they also had problems with their minorities. There was a huge level of antisemitism in France, and the notion was that the Jews could be put on the island of Madagascar, which was French. Ironically, the Germans are playing around with it, and Eichmann played around with this notion right up until 1940. It’s only when they run out of options do they decide on mass murder. So the question you have to ask yourselves, be careful not to dehumanise the Nazis and make them the beasts of the field because they are the ones who are actually responsible. But never forget the words of Hugo Gryn when he said, “What it’s all about is the overturning of the Ten Commandments.” Somehow there was something in the Nazi creed and the way it operated that turned people against each other and brought out the most appalling aspects of human behaviour. So we know that Eichmann is pushing them out as much as possible. And also the German government, particularly under the auspices of the genius of propaganda Goebbels, they were exploiting the reluctance of the other countries to let them in. After Kristallnacht, Roosevelt had recalled the American ambassador, but he didn’t break off diplomatic relations with Germany.
Now, the voyage attracts the most extraordinary media attention, even before the ship sailed. Why? Because in Cuba, there were issues about what would happen to the passengers. The right-wing Cuban newspapers were demanding a new policy on the Jews. The director general of Cuban immigration was under public scrutiny for illegal sale of landing certificates. He had made a personal fortune of about ¾ of a million dollars selling these landing certificates. And it was not just about this. Remember, there was a depression, there was a worldwide depression. There was resentment of refugees. Will these people take our jobs away? There was good old-fashioned antisemitism, there was good old-fashioned xenophobia in Cuba. And also there were Nazi agents in South America all over the place. They combined with local right wing fascists to also spread the rumour in the right-wing press that all Jews were communists. And of course, this ties up with the image of the Jews and communism, which goes back to the Russian Revolution. And I could say until I’m purple that the majority of Jews were never communists. But what you’ve got to understand in the 20s and 30s, and later on when we look at HUAC in the 40s, there was this association of the Jews with communism. So on May the 8th, five days before the ship actually sailed, there was a huge antisemitic rally in Havana. It was actually sponsored by a former Cuban president. And the headline was, “Fight the Jews until the last one is driven out.” 40,000 people attended that rally. So when the ship finally arrived on May the 27th, the landing certificates have already been revoked. And it’s worth looking at the pictures of those people, that’s when they left Hamburg.
They really would have felt that they were finally on the road to freedom. And at the end of this presentation, I’m going to show you a short film. Only 27 passengers were admitted. Can you imagine people with relatives down at the docks waiting to meet their families, friends? 22 Jews had valid American visas, which meant that they could go straight onto America. Four were Spanish and two were Cuban. There was one other tragic character, a man who attempted suicide. So they did take him off the ship and put him in a Havana hospital. So there were now remaining 908 passengers. One had actually died on route. They were all awaiting U.S. visas because what they had been given were Cuban transit visas. And these are the visas that had been bought, that were being sold by the man in Havana. And now it is decided they are all illegal. So after Cuba denies entry, the story spreads all over the world. Many of the papers in Britain and America were reasonably sympathetic, but few journalists suggested allowing them into America. And it’s absolutely extraordinary the kind of comment. I’m going to read to you from an English newspaper. This is “The Sunday Express” of June the 19th of 1938. So this is 10 months before the St. Louis, and I think it gives you a tone of much of the right-wing press, both in Britain and in America. “There is a new exodus of the children of Israel, not from Egypt, but from Germany. Jews are being herded from one place to another, threatened and insulted. The children of Israel are sore afraid. In Britain, half a million Jews find their homes. They are never persecuted, and in many respects are given favoured treatment here. But just now, there’s a big influx of Jews, foreign Jews into Britain. They are overrunning the country. They are trying to enter the medical profession in great numbers.
They wish to practise as dentists. Worst of all, many of them are psychoanalysts. They need no medical training, but arrogate to themselves the function of a doctor. And they often obtain an ascendancy over the patient of which they make bad use if they are bad people. The hostility to Jews in Germany cannot be condoned, but beware lest the present rush of Jews into this country injures the cause of Jewry here. There is no intolerance in Britain today. Intolerance is loathed and hated by almost everyone in this country. And by keeping a close watch on the causes which fed the intolerance of the Jews in other European countries, we should be able to continue to treat well those Jews who have made their homes amongst us.” Well, you could spend a whole semester analysing that article, couldn’t you? And it’s at this stage that the Joint step in. Now, I’m going to give you more details on the Joint in a few minutes. Lawrence Berenson, he arrives to represent them. He’d been former president of the Cuban-American Chamber of Commerce, and he was well versed in the business dealings of Cuba. He had huge business experience there. He met with President Bru, he fails to persuade him. Evidently it was about money. And at the time he couldn’t quite raise the amount. So as a result, Bru ordered the ship out of Cuban waters. The ship sails very close to Florida. So close that some of the passengers remarked that they saw the Miami lights. Some passengers cabled FDR. No response. The State Department and the White House decided against admitting the passengers. This is the State Department telegram that was sent. “Passengers must await their turn on the waiting list and qualify and obtain immigration visas before they may be admitted into America.” It’s true that American diplomats in Havana did try to intervene to enable the passengers to be admitted on a humanitarian basis.
But President Bru was not going to allow that to trouble him because he had problems with his own right wing. And in 1939, the whole combined German-Austrian quota for America was 27,370 people. So that meant there’s a waiting list of at least 10 years. A “Fortune Magazine” poll at the time, and you’re getting the publicity about the ship. 83% of Americans actually opposed relaxing immigration rules. Now, FDR could have issued an executive order, but think about the 30s. Think about what we’ve already talked about. Think about Charles Lindbergh. Think about the Depression. Think about isolationism. Think about the New Deal was called by many in the South, the Jew deal. He was also thinking of running for a third term in 1940. He had to deal with his isolationists. He had to deal with the Republicans. And in the congressional elections of 1938, they very much wanted the curtailing of immigration. So there were many, many reasons of self-interest that Roosevelt was not going to stick his neck out. Ironically, two smaller ships carrying refugees sailed for Cuba in May, 1939. The French ship, the Flandre, which had 104 passengers, it was an ordinary British, and another vessel, 74. Neither of them were permitted to land. The Flandre went back to France and the Orduna went on a series of Latin American ports. Finally, though, in that case, in the second boat, they disembarked in U.S. Panamanian Canal Zone, and the U.S. finally admitted them. But that was a much smaller number. So continuing, I want to talk now about some of the characters who are involved in all of this. And can we see the next slide, please? Here you see Captain Gustav Schroeder. Now he’s going to be one of the heroes of the story, and he was a German.
So it’s important to remember that you cannot ascribe to a whole race or a whole group certain characteristics. I remember when I was actually teaching in China, we looked at a trio of people. We looked at a man called John Rabe, who was a member of the Nazi party, who saved 300,000 Chinese civilians when they were attacked by the Japanese in Nanjing. There was a Chinese consul in Vienna who issued thousands of visas to Austrian Jews. There was a Japanese consul in Lithuania, Sugihara, who gave transit visas to thousands of Lithuanian Jews. So remember, individuals are individuals. And this is Captain Gustav Schroeder. He’d always been a navy man. He joined when he was 16. And after 24 years of service, he reaches the rank of captain. He’d been posted to Calcutta. He’d been interned as an enemy alien in World War II. And whilst he was in Calcutta interned, he began studying languages as a hobby. And that made him fluent in seven languages. In 1919, he returned to Germany, but because of the demilitarisation of the navy, he couldn’t get a job in the government. So in 1921, he’s hired by the Hamburg America shipping line, and he’s worked his way up and he becomes the captain of the St. Louis in 1939. And that regularly sailed to Hamburg, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and New York City. It was a luxury ship. There were also cruises to the Canary Islands, Madeira, Spain, and Morocco. And he’s in charge of the boat when they sail to Cuba with 937 passengers, all seeking asylum. Now, he was a German officer and he treated his passengers with great respect. He allowed them to conduct religious services on the boat, and he took down the picture of Adolf Hitler, so it wouldn’t upset them. He knew it would be looked at unfavourably by the Nazis. And he, we’re going to find out, tried desperately to find them asylum, even planning to run the ship aground off the coast of Cornwall. So this is the man who treats his passengers as he would any of them on a pleasure cruise.
So if you can imagine on the way out, before they know the horror that’s awaiting them, there’s a swimming pool, there are dances, there is good food. They are really being treated very well. Now what happened to him is after he returned to Germany, he was assigned a desk job, and he was in a lot of trouble. He was, in a way demoted, and he was put before a denazification court at the end of the war. Surviving passengers actually spoke up for him and told what a wonderful man he was. He married, he became a writer. He lived with his family in Hamburg, and later on he was honoured. He was given the Order of Merit by the Federal Republic, quote, “For services to the people and the land and the rescue of refugees.” And in 1993, he was awarded by Yad Vashem the title of Righteous Amongst the Nations. And ironic, in the year 2000, a street was named for him in Hamburg. So a man of huge principal who did everything he could to help the passengers under his command. Now let’s have a look at the next character, Federico Laredo. And here you see them boarding at Hamburg. This is Federico Laredo Bru, who is, of course, he’s a lawyer who becomes president of Cuba between 1936 and 1940. He had been a colonel in the Cuban military in the Cuban War of Independence. And when the liner St. Louis arrived, it was refused permission to land because as I said, his people had invalidated the landing certificates during transit.
Now, he would do nothing to help, even though there was an attempt by the Joint to try and come to some sort of financial arrangements. He was also worried that if he allowed any of them in, it would inflame public opinion. And we know that the Nazis were incredibly active in Cuba at the time. Think how near it is to the coast of Miami. And also don’t forget that we’re in 1939 now, and the Germans, they’ve got spies all over America. They are pushing for American isolationism. And what they want more than anything else is to keep America out of any war. But despite all the efforts of the Joint, they were unsuccessful. And it is he who orders the ship to move on. Now, can we go on, please? This is a woman. Let’s get to the human side of it now, because this is a woman who is denied entry. Look, she’s trying. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. Now, let’s have a look at the Americans, because, as you know, the ship, can we see the next slide, please? Here you see Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the hero of American Jewry. And over the next few weeks, I’m going to be actually having to address this issue because next week I’m going to be looking at America and the Holocaust, and then I’m going to be looking at the whole issue of the Bergson Group and characters like Stephen Wise and Nahum Goldmann, because there are so many questions to ask. Could more have been done to save European Jewry before the war? During the war? And believe it or not, after the war in 1945? Now, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, fascinating man. A Patrician. His wife, Eleanor, on the other hand, was a huge humanitarian, very close to Albert Einstein, involved in all sorts of efforts to rescue Jews. She was very close to Varian Fry, the American who was active in Marseilles saving intellectuals. He brought nearly 3,000, this is in 1940.
He brought nearly 3,000 of the great intellectuals of Europe to America, working with Hiram Bingham, who was a Quaker and a deputy American consul. But Roosevelt, remember, he’s going for his third term in office. Above all, he wanted to keep hold of power. And what is even more fascinating, his closest personal friend was Henry Morgenthau Jr. So he is also a man whose closest friend is a Jew. So the man who is, but the one I want to turn to now is Cordell Hull. Can we see his picture, please? Now, he’s an interesting man. He was a U.S. politician from Tennessee. He was the longest ever serving Secretary of State. He is the man who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 because he was instrumental in establishing the United Nations. Roosevelt called him the father of the UN. He was an absolutely ruthless politician. He’d married when he was 45, a widow of Austrian-Jewish origin. And although she was a practising Christian, he was anxious. Remember, he lives in Tennessee. He is very much part of the ethos of the South. He was very cautious and he was very anxious to play down her ethnic origins. It was a very, very sensitive point in the deep South. He ,in fact, destroyed the career of a man who worked for him who had too much power, as far as he’s concerned. Sumner Welles, who I’ll be talking about him in another class. Because he was jealous of Sumner Welles and his having the ear of Roosevelt, he threatened to reveal his homosexuality, which, of course, was a crime. And it was Hull who actually advised FDR to send the St. Louis on its way.
So it’s left Cuba and it’s now off the coast of Miami. But Henry Morgenthau did try and intervene, but Hull made it clear that the passengers couldn’t be given tourist visas because they had no return address. Can you imagine? He is also telling FDR he has to be careful because of the upcoming elections. In fact, in 1940, the Joint had lodged a campaign about the discriminatory policies of the State Department. Hull then gave strict instructions to every U.S. consulate telling them to go slow on visas for Jews and sometimes forbidding them to issue. Now, why would the Joint be involved? Because the American Joint was sending money to Europe to try and alleviate the suffering of Jews. It was an extraordinary organisation. In fact, in September, 1940, Eleanor Roosevelt did use her influence. She bypassed Hull to allow the refugees on a Portuguese ship, the Quanza, to receive visas. And they disembarked in Virginia. Now… So he is the man responsible for that telegram that was sent by the State Department. Remember, all telegrams sent to Roosevelt were denied. “They must await their turn on the waiting list and qualify and obtain immigration visas before they may be admitted into the USA.” And the American Coast Guard actually went out to actually accompany the ship. There was an editorial in “The New York Times.” “There seems to be no hope for them now. The St. Louis will soon be home with her cargo of despair.” Now, can we have a look at Henry Morgenthau Jr.? Because we’re going to be coming to him time and time again because he’s going to be the minister of, he’s the U.S. Secretary of State for the Treasury. And it’s going to be to him that what is going on in Europe, once the knowledge of what is going on in Europe is going to be… It’s a complicated story. Wait 'til I get to that story rather than, but let’s talk a bit about him. He came from a very, very wealthy family.
And I’m going to mention his father. And the reason I want to bring his father into this is because it’s so important that we understand the psychology of people. And Henry Morgenthau Sr., he was quite a character. He was the son of Lazarus and Babette Guggenheim. The father was a very successful individual. He had huge factories. He employed over 1,000 people in Manheim, in Baden. The city only had 21,000 people. So he was the biggest man in town. And it was a cigar factory, dependent on tobacco. And because of the American Civil War, there was a tobacco tariff, which closed the German tobacco industry down. So what happens is he takes his family to New York, and his son attends City College and Columbia Law School. And the father makes money, property investments. He becomes very friendly with William Waldorf Astor. He bought underdeveloped land around Washington Heights, and he served as the leader of the Reform Jewish community. So he’s part of the American-German dream, the American-German-Jewish dream. They are, if you like, the elite. They live in New York. He is a leader of the Reform community. He also wants political power, does the father. He contributes handsomely to Wilson’s election. He’d first met Wilson at a dinner celebrating the anniversary of the Free Synagogue Society. The two became very close. He was offered the position of ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
He’d wanted a cabinet post, but that’s what he got. And Wilson, to placate him, said, “Constantinople was the point at which the interests of American Jews in the welfare of the Jews in Palestine is focused. And it’s almost indispensable that I have a Jew in the post.” So he goes off to Turkey. He wasn’t a Zionist, in fact, he was an anti-Zionist. But he did care a lot about his co-religionists. He’s also encouraged by his friend, Rabbi Steven Wise, and I’m going to give a whole session on him. And he’s ambassador to the Turkish Empire, 1913 to 1916. And of course, what happens there but the Armenian massacre? He tried to do everything when, of course, the Turkish Army committed what many countries believe to be a genocide. And remember that word, genocide. It was actually first coined by a Polish Jew called Raphael Lemkin, who’s lost his family in the Shoah. He was trying to come up with a word to an attempt to describe the destruction of a whole people. That word is so ridiculously bandied around today. But many people do believe that what the Turks did to the Armenians was an attempted genocide. He tried to alleviate it, but America did remain neutral. The interests of state. Do states have the same morality as private individuals? I suggest you read Machiavelli’s “The Prince.” He had very high-level meetings with Ottoman officials, but the Turks completely ignored him. He famously admonished the Ottoman Interior Minister, Talaat Pasha, “Our people will never forget these massacres.” He formed a public fundraising committee to assist the Armenians. He raised a hundred million in aid to help the Armenian massacre. That is, the people who’d suffered. That’s extraordinary. And also, he had a friendship with Adolph Ochs, who was the Jewish publisher of “The New York Times.”
He got as much publicity as he could. And in 1915 alone, “The New York Times” published 145 articles about the Armenian massacres. And it’s fascinating because even though it’s still Jewish owned in the war, you are not going to see that number. Lots of questions to ask. He resigned in 1916, and he wrote in his memoirs about the Ottoman Empire, “A place of horror. I found it intolerable that my daily association with men, however gracious and accommodating, who were still reeking with the blood of nearly a million beings.” And in fact, in June, 1917, he went with the Jewish lawyer, Felix Frankfurter, representing the War Department for a secret but unsuccessful meeting to persuade the Ottoman Turks to abandon their alliance with the Habsburgs and with the Germans. He was amongst the 31 Jewish leaders at the Paris Peace Conference for America. He signed an anti-Zionist petition, which was actually presented by the American Congressman, Julius Khan. People like Henry Morgenthau, he is an American, he is living the American dream. He is representing the American government. Just as in Anglo Jewry, a lot of the Anglo-Jewish establishment didn’t want the Balfour Declaration because, you know, as one of them said, “How can you say that I represent Britain when you’re telling me my home is at the end of the Eastern Mediterranean?” And he was at the Geneva Conference on disarmament. He published several books. And by the way, his granddaughter is, well unfortunately, died recently, is the great historian Barbara Tuchman. And honestly, if you haven’t read any of her books, I’ve read them all. I think she is a wonderful writer.
She’s a great scholar who writes like a journalist, which is the greatest, it’s the greatest accolade I can pay any historian. Great scholarship, and great style. Now let’s talk about the son. So I’ve given you a background because he’s going to come up time and time again, Henry Morgenthau. So he comes from a very, very successful family. He studies architecture and agriculture at Carmel. He had a problem with reading. He fails to graduate. He develops a very close friendship with both Franklin Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, because he operated a farm called Fishkill, which was near the Roosevelts’ farm in upper state New York. They specialised in growing Christmas trees. And Henry Morgenthau’s wife, who was Elinor, was very close. So the four of them were very, very close. And he was by far the closest of Roosevelt’s personal friends when he was president. Eleanor wrote, this is Eleanor Roosevelt, “They are our neighbours in the country and we enjoy them as neighbours and friends before politics and work for different social aims come into our relationship. My husband treated Henry as a younger brother.” Morgenthau had acquired the firm when he was only 22. And the two of them met at a political luncheon. And this is what Roosevelt said, “He’s an awfully nice fellow, one who will be a tremendous asset to us in the country.” So Roosevelt draws on Morgenthau’s farming knowledge, agricultural connections when Roosevelt is running for governor of New York. And it enabled him to pick up quite a few votes from the Republicans. And on his 50th birthday, on Morgenthau’s 50th birthday, FDR celebrated his relationship with Morgenthau in a poem. The two of them had a longstanding date for a private lunch every Monday.
Morgenthau and his wife were known in the State Department. Remember, Roosevelt has three terms in office. As the couple closest to the Roosevelts. And the point about Morgenthau, why didn’t he intervene more? He was very scared to risk what he believed was a very precious friendship. I think you can say he was a devout assimilationist. He’d never attended a Seder service, even. Nevertheless, the St. Louis did disturb him. And according to Morgenthau’s own account, he did press FDR over the St. Louis. But at that stage, FDR went for the advice of Cordell Hull. Morgenthau in 1934 was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. He’d already been Governor of the Federal Farm Board. He was involved in monetary decisions. It was a very popular appointment. He worked to keep interest rates low during the Depression, financed public spending. He didn’t always agree with FDR’s policies, but he was incredibly loyal and he was the only Jew who was a cabinet secretary in the administration. During the 30s, one of the other reasons he was very insecure is during the 30s, a lot of Roosevelt’s enemies actually pointed to the fact that he had too many Jewish friends. Anyway, that’s Morgenthau, and he’s going to come in and out of the story over the next few weeks. The close friend of the president, a very generous man, he gave a lot of money to charity, but he was an American first. He was anti-Zionist, but would help Jewish philanthropical causes. But now let’s turn to the next slide, please. The Joint. I cannot tell you how much admiration I’ve had for that organisation.
In fact, when we were working in Eastern Europe in a place called Dnipropetrovsk, we were teaching about the Holocaust to Ukrainian teachers. We were paid by government, our lecturers were all paid. It was intergovernmental. It was what was the ITF. It’s now called IHRA. And the only organisation in a place like Dnipro that we felt was safe to entrust government money was the Joint. And the head of the Joint was actually a Chabad rabbi, the head of the joint in Dnipro. An extraordinary character. And we had a wonderful time with him. So not only do I know a lot about the Joint historically, I know a lot about its work. And its extraordinary. It was actually founded back in New York City to support Jews living in Palestine in 1914. What happened was this. It starts with a donation from the extraordinary Jacob Schiff, who we’ve already spent a whole session on. He gave them $50,000 and what had happened was, when war breaks out in 1914. Remember, the Jews in Palestine are under threat. A lot of them were Russian, therefore the Turks began to expel them. Many of them were dependent on charity from the Jewish world. It all dries up, and it’s down to the Joint. And by the end of 1917, the Joint had transferred 76,000 to Jews in trouble in Romania, 1 ½ million dollars to Jews in trouble in Galicia, and 2 ½ million to Jews in trouble in Russia, and 3 million to Jews in Poland. So they are collecting an incredible amount of money, mainly in New York and in the other centres of Jewish population. And they’re sending it overseas to help their co-religionists.
And if you think about what happened at the end of the First World War, when the whole of Eastern Europe erupted, something like 150,000 Jews were killed in pogroms in the end of the First World War, perpetrated either by the Ukrainian Army, the Anarchist Army, the Polish Army, even Trotsky’s Red Army. And, of course, the White Army under Denikin. So basically it was the Joint that continued the rescue series, and it’s the Joint that sends money into the Jewish world, right up until America enters the war. And that’s when there’s a problem, and I’ll talk about that later. By 1914, there were 49,000 Jews in Palestine. And because of the terrible crisis, all the colonies are threatened and they needed the money. Now of course, unfortunately the Joint did suffer from the Depression, but between 1933 and 1939, what do I mean they suffered from the Depression? Well, their benefactors suffered, so they couldn’t give as much to charity. They had been able, because remember all Jews getting out of Germany, most of them have been robbed blind. They needed money. I mean, to get to Britain, you needed 50 pound guarantee. In America, you needed a guarantee. The Joint was making up a huge amount of this. And they had managed to assist 190,000 Jews in their escape. Of the 190,000 who escaped, about 80,000 managed to get out of Europe completely. And after the Nuremberg Laws, the Joint became absolutely critical. In Germany, they subsidised medical care, schools, vocational training. And it gradually has to be extended to Austria and to Czechoslovakia. Emergency aid for stranded refugees, acquiring and buying visas. Even shipping in Passover supplies to Poland in 1940. Imagine. Still in 1940, it was helping refugees in 40 countries. America doesn’t come into the war until Pearl Harbour. So when the ship, the St. Louis, the Joint tried to help, he fails. But what happens is that the Joint is going to manage to persuade other countries that they will pick up the bill for the passengers to be disembarked elsewhere.
And of course, what happened once America enters the war, the Joint was no longer permitted to operate legally in enemy countries. So what it had to do, and it had incredible connections. You can just imagine. I saw how they operated when I was in Ukraine. They had incredible international connections. They had to channel aid to Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. And their wartime headquarters were, of course, in Lisbon, which was an absolute centre of spies, et cetera, et cetera. And they also sponsored a relief programme of 15,000 Jews to Shanghai, mainly Austrian Jews. It was discovered that you didn’t need a visa for the international city, and it was the Joint who sponsored the relief programme for the Jews in Shanghai. Now, the head of the Lisbon office was an extraordinary man, Morris Carlton Troper. He was an accountant, he was a barrister, and he negotiated on behalf of the Joint for the St. Louis refugees. He’s the one who’s going to persuade Britain, France, Belgium, and Holland to take the refugees on the St. Louis. And the French, after the war, made him an Officer of the Legion of Honour. And he’s the man who headed up the Lisbon office in the war. And in fact, when war broke out, he was there until 1942. Then he returned to America where he was a colonel in the Office of Fiscal Director and chief of finance for the American Army. So basically the ship, there’s no hope for the Americans. So next, what about Canada? Can we go on please? There you see “The New York Times.” And now the next slide, please. There you see the U.S. Coast Guard preventing anyone from landing. And then what about Canada? Let’s have a look at the next slide. There he is. William Lyon Mackenzie King, the 10th prime minister of Canada.
He was also the longest-serving prime minister in Canada’s history. He ran for three terms and his last term was ‘35 to '48. He had a doctorate in both politics and law. The only Canadian prime minister who had a doctorate. He was, in a way, a man of a people. His primary interest was in social welfare. He actually, in 1944, introduced the first universal welfare programme. But this is the assessment from a very good Canadian historian, Jack Granatstein. “Scholars express little admiration for King the man, but offer unbounded admiration for his political skills and his attention to Canadian unity.” He was a Canadian first. He had passed, back in 1923, Canada was also whipped up in this whole feeling of not wanting refugees. And he passed the Chinese Immigration Act, banning nearly all immigration from China and restricting it from most other countries. And in March, 1936, in response to German remilitarization of the Rhineland. Remember, he is part of the empire. He informs the British government Canada would remain neutral if Britain went to war over the Rhineland. Canada will only go to war if Britain is directly attacked. In 1937, he visited Germany and he met with Hitler. Now, having said he had a huge social problem, social welfare problem, he was a very aloof man. He was not easy with individuals, but he adored Wagner and he adored Wagner’s music. He was also fascinated by spiritualism. King actually thought, and he wrote about it, that Hitler was akin to Wagner’s heroes. His struggle is between good and evil. And he believed good would ultimately triumph in Hitler and he would finally redeem his people. This is what he wrote in his journal. “He is really one who truly loves his fellow man and his country and will make any sacrifice for their good. The world will yet come to see a very great man.” Remember, this is in his journal. He saw the mystic in Hitler. “I cannot abide Nazism, the regimentation, the cruelty, the oppression of Jews, attitude towards religion. But Hitler will rank someday with Jon of Arc amongst the deliverers of the people.” In 1938, the Czechoslovak Crisis. Munich, the Canadians were divided over it, but all relieved when Hitler signed the deal with Neville Chamberlain.
Remember, Chamberlain comes back, he sells Czechoslovakia down the river. I bring you back peace, and peace with honour. We have to be careful here. I mustn’t move into my own trap because the perpetrators are the Nazis. But nevertheless, it’s interesting how people don’t rise and they follow complete self-interests. Now, he decides not to allow anyone in. He responds why. Strong public opinion, especially in Quebec. They didn’t want any more Jewish refugees. And it’s made plain in the right-wing press and in rallies, no St. Louis passengers in. And most famously Frederick Blair, an immigration official in his party, was asked how many refugees Canada would admit after World War II. He replied, “None is too many.” And this was a policy that was supported by King. Let’s have a look at Frederick Blair. Frederick Charles Blair. He completely passes over. I think that’s him in his military gear. He was director of Government of Canadian Immigration Branch of the Department of Mines and Resources And he rigorously enforced an immigration policy strictly based on race. Between 1933 and 1939, fewer than 5,000 Jewish refugees were allowed into Canada. After the war, between '45 and '48, when the world knew what had happened, the Immigration Branch accepted only 8,000 survivors. Blair’s letters and private conversations actually illustrates his deep antisemitism. This is a letter to Mackenzie King of 1938. You know, people shouldn’t write things down if they don’t want the historians to find out. “Pressure by Jewish people to get into Canada has never been greater than now. And I’m glad to be able to add that after 35 years of experience, it has never been so carefully controlled.” And this is in his 1941 annual report. “Canada, in accordance with generally accepted practise, places greater emphasis on race than upon citizenship.” When he retired in 1945, he was made a Companion of the Imperial Service Order.
So the Canadians don’t let them in. There’s a huge furor in the press, not necessarily asking countries to let them in. But having said that, the Joint intervenes and basically is going to pay the sponsorship. There are requests made to the French Prime Minister, to Neville Chamberlain. It’s the Quakers and Jewish groups, people like Sydney Silverman, but the Unitarians and people in the British Parliament, people in the French Parliament, the Dutch Parliament, the Belgians. And in the end, let’s see the next slide, please. Whilst it’s being discussed, the captain, Schroeder, he actually says, “We’re going to wreck the ship off the Cornish coast and see what happens.” He was prepared to do that. So let’s go on. There you see Neville Chamberlain. And he gives in to the pleas and also the Joint and allows, the numbers are, Great Britain took 288. The Netherlands took 181. The Belgians took 214. The French 224. Those that made it to Britain all survived, bar one who was killed in an air raid. Of the 640 who returned to the continent, 14% managed to emigrate before the German invasion. May, 1940, 532 of the St. Louis passengers were trapped by the Nazis. 278 of them survived. 254 died, 84 from Belgium, 84 from Holland, and 86 from chance. And it was, as I said, the Joint that managed to raise the money. Can we go on please? This is when they find out that they’re going to be allowed to disembark. And here you see the pictures, and it’s really, really heavy press now and sympathy. But this is what “The Daily Express” said on Monday, June the 19th, “The German liner, St. Louis, arrives at Antwerp with her cargo of Jewish refugees. Some will be sheltered in England, some in France, in Belgium, in Holland. The plight of these refugees wandering helpless over the sea in search of a home won the sympathy of the world. The decision to allow some of them to land in this country was approved by public opinion.
This example must not set a precedent. There is no room for any more refugees in this country.” This is, of course, Lord Beaverbrook’s press. And he was the man who visited Germany in 1933. And he said stories of Jewish persecution are exaggerated. He was an isolationist. Britain should make no alliances except with America. There should be no liabilities outside the Empire, except in relation to the Anglo-Saxon race. He attended the Olympics at the invitation of Ribbentrop who had been the former ambassador to America, who was a close friend of his. He championed appeasement. He said, “Do not get caught up in quarrels over foreign boundaries that do not concern us. And over Hitler in Poland, what have they to do with us?” Now this is from “The Daily Mail.” This is the Rothermere press. Lord Rothermere was also sympathetic to the Nazis. He’d had the headline back in '36, “The Blackshirts, hooray for the Blackshirts.” “Daily Mail.” “Some of the Jewish refugees maroon aboard the German liner, St. Louis, that have come to Britain temporarily. No encouragement should be given to the idea that if refugees left Germany, many before arrangements were made for their admission to some other country, special facilities will be granted for their reception. Special arrangements should not be regarded as a precedent.” This is “The New York Times,” “The saddest ship afloat today, the Hamburg American liner St. Louis with 900 Jewish refugees abroad is steaming back towards Germany after a tragic week of frustration at Havana off the coast of Florida.”
At this stage, their bureautrice in Berlin was a man called Guido Enderis who was always to be found propping up the bar in the Hotel Adlon in loudmouth defence of the Nazis. So what can we make of the ship the St. Louis? It really does, to an extent, show the Nazis that they can get away with it. And consequently, what you have to ask yourselves is to what extent are the Allies in any way culpable in the events that are going to unfold in the Shoah. Taking not your sight off who the murderers are, be careful, but I think it’s a question if we are talking about humanity, and we don’t seem to have progressed much, do we? I think these are big questions, but please don’t forget, people like the Joint, people like Captain Schroeder. There are always the good ones. And I still believe this is where we have to leave history for psychology. What makes certain people heroes and what makes other people sheep? And on that note, I think we’re stopped there and have a look at the questions.
Q&A and Comments:
A lot of you are saying it’s cold. Yes. The U.S. and the…
Noah’s recommending the Ken Burns documentary. Yes, it’s very, very good.
Q: “Did anyone consult the Madagascar regarding a settlement plan for the Jewish nation?”
A: Selena, it couldn’t work because Madagascar was owned by the French. And anyway, the British controlled the seas. So it was just a silly idea. The St. Louis was owned by a German line, the Hamburg America Line.
Hold on, I’m just turning someone’s call. Sorry about that.
David Rappaport, “While the Nazis were committing genocide, the Western ward was watching or refusing to accept Jewish immigration. Canada was one of the worst. 'None is too many,’ while discussing how many Jews it would accept. That meant we too have many Jews already. In Europe, city and small town neighbours of the Jews were collaborating. We had few friends anywhere.” Yeah. Nothing has changed.
“Mackenzie King, ‘None is too many.’ He was an occultist and spoke of the spirit of his mother and the spirit of his dog.” Yes, he certainly was a very strange character, but it was actually Blair who said that none is too many.
Q: Did I know that Anne Frank and her family were denied immigration?
A: Yes. I’m afraid I do. Yes. Arlene.
Q: “Who took the pictures?”
A: These were press people. There were people at the… It was huge news. “
Varian Fry was remarkable. However, he was told to stop his actions and he didn’t heed the U.S. and was greatly reprimanded.” Yes, I’ll be talking about Varian Fry next week.
“Also, the issue of the people who were trying to save were famous. Not the ordinary man, woman, or child.” When we come onto Varian Fry, I’m certainly going to bring up that point. If you know you can’t save everybody and you have to make decisions. Oh my goodness, the dilemmas that people were put into, actually by the Nazis. If you think about it, who shall live and who shall die? It’s a complicated story. And the Varian Fry story is a very complicated one.
No, Elaine, it attempted to. If he tried to land in Miami Schroeder, the Coast Guard was out. He was going from pillar to post. No one would let him in.
Oh yes, Rita, from the book, “None Is Too Many.” Yes. And by the historians, Irving Abella and Harold Troper. Yes. Yes, we talked about that.
Yes, Hindi. Hindi, “Fortunately my father and siblings were able to sponsor in their widowed mother and other siblings to Toronto from Kielce by 1933. His youngest brother ended up studying art in New York on scholarship and was later served under General Patton in the liberation of France. He was awarded a medal for his efforts by General Patton. And I’m the lucky to have a photo of that moment.” Yes. You see, there are always those who do make it, but what a terrible, terrible story. And of course, Kielce, there’s a terrible story about Kielce, because after the war, survivors returned and there was a blood libel pogrom. And hundreds of them were murdered. It was sort of stirred up by a local priest. It’s an extraordinary story.
This is from Ruthie. “There was a weekly programme on CBC TV called "Front Page Challenge.” The members of the “Front Page Challenge” team blindfolded for the show asked questions of guests to determine their identity. I saw the programme where Captain Gustav Schroeder was the guest. And I remember him saying he pulled down the Nazi flag from the dining room on the St. Louis. Great risk to his life. The panel did not guess his identity. The audience broke into thundering applause. Had to share this.“ What a fabulous story. Yes. Remember he took down Hitler’s photo. He didn’t want to upset them. He treated his passengers with great respect. He was a special man. He was demoted, but he survived. And of course he was later honoured by Yad Vashem.
And now by… "Essential to note the kill in Fishkill is a Dutch word, meaning stream. Had nothing to do with killing fish.” Thank you, Jana.
Katarina, I’ve mentioned Raphael Lemkin. I highly recommend Philippe Sand’s book “East West Street” about Lemkin. Yes. And Hersch Lauterpacht. Yes. It’s an extraordinary story. Philippe Sand, of course, is himself a lawyer and so was his grandfather. And, you know, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing him. He’s an incredibly bright man. And yes, it’s a wonderful book. If you live in London, he’s speaking at Jewish Book Week in March, the first week in March, Jewish Book Week. And actually we’ve tied up with them for the 10:30 for four 10:30 lectures on the first week in March. I’m afraid it’s 10:30 British time. But you can always get them, I suppose, from the Lockdown Library. Yes, there are records of the Joint that detail their philanthropic work. Yes.
This is Monty. “State morality versus individual morality. Kissinger raised the same question when he was pilloried during the Vietnam War, when he sanctioned the bombing of Cambodia, which shocked the world. Now some are raising the same question with Israel’s action in Gaza.” Yes. The JDC. Oh thank you. That’s why I don’t even have to think. There’s always one of you. The Joint Distribution Committee. And what I’d love is that it was actually established with money from Jacob Schiff, who has to be one of my heroes. In case you don’t remember, he was so angry by the Russian treatment of the Jews, the czarist treatment of the Jews, that, during the Russo-Japanese War, he absolutely stunned the Japanese by offering to lend them $200 million. Which was really the main reason they beat the Russians. Unfortunately, it added to the notion in Russia that all Jews are powerful.
Q: “Where did the St. Louis fuel and take on supplies?”
A: I presume they were allowed to refuel in… I’d have to think. I think obviously in Cuba they would’ve been allowed to.
Yes. The 1965 film, “The Ship of Fools,” written by the wonderful Abby Mann. It’s really worth looking at. It’s not the story of the St. Louis, but it’s about human behaviour and it’s wonderful.
Barbara Tuchman, Michael. She’s the granddaughter of Morgenthau. She is a wonderful historian. Look up her books. And again, Nomi’s told us. Thank you, Selena. Thank you.
“I’ve often heard that the West is refusing to take in refugees because they’re not European. I have pointed out the story of the St. Louis.” Yeah.
Oh, this is David. “My parents, Holocaust survivors, and I came to Halifax from Hamburg in 1951. I was born in Manheim.” Well, that’s extraordinary. And of course Morgenthau Sr. was the biggest industrialist in the town.
“Halifax, Pier 21. My parents arrived there from Liverpool in 1957, originally from Budapest.” Oh wow, wow, wow. What a strange people we are. Selena thinks I would be a very successful diplomat because I can give my opinion without sounding judgmental. Would you please write letters to my children? Thank you. Thank you.
“At the end of World War I, when Canada was asked how many refugees it would take a Canadian diplomat, Lester Pearson, told Ottawa not to use the excuse that Canada did not have the necessary ships. Pearson told Ottawa the ships would be provided.” That’s interesting.
Selma saying, “My mother was admitted to Canada in 1931.”
Irving, “My husband at five years of age travelled with his mother from Montreal to Ottawa and his mother met with Blair to try and get the other families into Canada.” Oh, Irving. Oy. That’s sad. So sad. And I’m sure he didn’t succeed.
Anyway, thank you all for listening and we have another lecture at seven o'clock with a brilliant new lecturer to us. He’s actually head of the City Lit, Mark Malcomson. So thank you for doing the slides and I wish you all goodnight. God bless.