History Repeating Itself

The German liner, St. Louis, set sail on May 13, 1939 from Hamburg carrying 937 passengers, most of them refugees seeking asylum from death, in this instance, death from the persecution inflicted by the Nazi regime. Captain Schröder was a German who went to great lengths to ensure dignified treatment for his passengers. Food served included items subject to rationing in Germany, and childcare was available while parents dined (note, children were not ripped from their parents arms and thrown in cages below decks).

Children play on the deck of the St. Louis

Dances and concerts were put on, and on Friday evenings, religious services were held in the dining room. A bust of Hitler was covered by a tablecloth. Swimming lessons took place in the pool. Lothar Molton, a boy traveling with his parents, said that the passengers thought of it as "a vacation cruise to freedom." Unfortunately, the vacation was short lived. Shortly before the ship made it to Cuba, the country adopted Decree 937, which restricted entry of all foreigners, except US citizens. As a result of this new rule, only 28 passengers were allowed to disembark.

With his passengers prohibited from landing in Cuba, Captain Schröder set sail for the United States. Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, advised President Roosevelt not to accept the refugees. Captain Schröder considered running aground along the coast to allow the refugees to escape, but acting on Cordell Hull's instructions, US Coast Guard vessels shadowed the ship and prevented such an action.

After the St. Louis was turned away from the United States, Captain Schröder negotiated and schemed to find passengers a haven, as conditions on the ship had begun to decline. At one point, he made plans to wreck the ship on the British coast to force the government to take in the passengers as refugees. He refused to return the ship to Germany until all the passengers had been given entry to some other country. The ship returned to Europe, docking at the Port of Antwerp (Belgium) on June 17, 1939, with 907 passengers. Twenty five percent of those passengers would die in Nazi detention facilities, historically referenced as concentration camps.

Today, at various points along the southern United States border, refugees, who are trying to follow the rules and seek asylum legally, are being told there is no more room for them, and are being turned away. Those who do make it across the border risk being detained in facilities that have been dubbed "Hielera", which is Spanish for icebox. Call these places what you will - iceboxes, death camps, concentration camps, detention centers, internment camps - "a rose by any other name is still a rose".

Refugees seeking asylum are fleeing death. These refugees may not be fleeing Nazi's, but they are fleeing violence and starvation. History is repeating itself. America is once again turning it's back on those that need our help. It was Mahatma Ghandi who said “A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”