This film documents one of the Jewish community’s efforts to save Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and records the indifference on the part of many nations – including the US – to their plight. The JDC produced this film to record what it thought would be a successful effort to save over 900 Jews, including 200 children, by sailing them from Nazi Germany to Cuba on the ship, the St. Louis. When Cuba refused to allow the passengers to land, the ship sailed to the Miami area where the US government also barred the refugees’ entrance.
The St. Louis languished in the waters around Cuba while the JDC searched for countries to accept the refugees. Finally, some European countries accepted them and the St. Louis returned to Europe to, the narrator states with unintended irony, “a new and better life.” Tragically, most of these refugees ended up in countries subsequently occupied by Germany and ultimately lost their lives in the Holocaust.
See also The Voyage of the St. Louis.
Includes an in-depth 50-page study guide prepared by Elliot Lefkowitz, director of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois.
The National Center For Jewish Film
Brandeis University, Lown 102, MS053, Waltham MA 02454
P: (781) 899 7044, F: (781) 736 2070
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