Fritz, Babette, Renate and Ines Spanier pose on a stairwell on the MS St. Louis in front of a sign that reads "no admittance".
Overview
- Caption
- Fritz, Babette, Renate and Ines Spanier pose on a stairwell on the MS St. Louis in front of a sign that reads "no admittance".
- Date
-
1939 May 13 - 1939 June 17
- Locale
- [Atlantic Ocean]
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Rolf [Altschul] Allan
- Event History
- The St. Louis was a German luxury liner carrying more than 930 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany to Cuba in May 1939. When the ship set sail from Hamburg on May 13, 1939, all of its refugee passengers bore legitimate landing certificates for Cuba. However, during the two-week period that the ship was en route to Havana, the landing certificates granted by the Cuban director general of immigration in lieu of regular visas, were invalidated by the pro-fascist Cuban government. When the St. Louis reached Havana on May 27 all but 28 of the Jewish refugees were denied entry. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) dispatched Lawrence Berenson to Cuba to negotiate with local officials but Cuban president Federico Laredo Bru insisted that the ship leave Havana harbor. The refugees were likewise refused entry into the United States. Thus on June 6 the ship was forced to return to Europe. While en route to Antwerp several European countries were cajoled into taking in the refugees (287 to Great Britain; 214 to Belgium; 224 to France; 181 to the Netherlands). Only those who were accepted by Great Britain found relative safety. The others were soon to be subject once again to Nazi rule with the German invasion of western Europe in the spring of 1940. A fortunate few succeeded in emigrating before this became impossible. In the end, many of the St. Louis passengers who found temporary refuge in Belgium, France and the Netherlands died at the hands of the Nazis, but the majority survived the war.
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Rolf [Altschul] Allan
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Ines Jacoby and Renee Goldman (born Ines and Renate Spanier) are the twin daughters of Fritz (b. 1902) and Babette (b. 1905) Spanier. They were born on January 20, 1932 in Berlin, Germany where their father was a physician of internal medicine. In May 1939 the family sailed to Havana on board the MS St. Louis in the hope of coming to the United States. After the Cuban government denied permission for the ship to land and the passengers had to return to Europe, the Spaniers disembarked in the Netherlands. They first stayed in the Zee Brugee camp and then in the Hejplatt Quaratine Center. After the Germans invaded Holland in 1940, the Spaniers were sent to the Westerbork concentration camp where Fritz served as the head physician. They remained there until the Canadian army liberated them in April 1945. Fritz joined up with the Canadian army as a physician and became a major in its medical corps. He went with them to Germany, and the JDC later asked him to serve as a physician for displaced persons. The family settled in the Bergen-Belsen DP camp where Fritz continued to practice medicine. In 1949, Ines and Renate went on youth aliyah and flew to Israel. The parents, who were now divorced, remained in Germany. Babette settled in Cologne and Fritz in Dusseldorf. Renate left Israel to join her Father in Dusseldorf in 1952 and continued to the USA in 1954. Ines and her husband Jack also came to the United States in 1961.
- Record last modified:
- 2013-05-17 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1068862
