On May 13 1939 the SS St. Louis set sail from Hamburg for Havana.
On board were 937 Jewish refugees fleeing persecution from Nazi Germany after the horror
of Kristallnacht, the pogrom of shop-burning and mass arrests the previous November. Each
passenger carried a valid visa for temporary entry into Cuba. It was one of the last ships
to leave Nazi Germany before Europe was engulfed in war. 
As the boat approached Havana, the Cuban government declared the visas
invalid and refused entry to the passengers. Subsequent negotiations with the Cuban
government to permit the landing ended in failure. Similar attempts to seek entry to the
United States also brought no respite. The United States, as the St. Louis steamed along
its southern coast, refused to let the ship dock, in keeping with its straitjacket of a
refugee policy, which would only tighten as the war progressed. After waiting 12 days in
the port of Havana and off the Miami coast, the boat was forced to return to Europe.
Four weeks to the day after the St. Louis had set sail from Hamburg the Belgian King
and Prime Minister agreed that 200 passengers could land in Belgium. Within a further
three days on June 13 the British, French and Dutch governments each agreed to
grant temporary asylum for the refugees until homes in other countries could be
found. The ship docked in Antwerp and the passengers were dispersed to their various
destinations.
Following the German invasion of Europe, many of the former St. Louis passengers found
themselves under Nazi rule and did not survive the Holocaust. Most of the survivors were
to be found amongst the contingent who were granted refuge in Great Britain. Amongst those
was Oskar Blechner.
