Passenger list of the MS St. Louis.

Passenger list of the MS St. Louis.

The SS St. Louis was a German ship carrying 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 22 of the Jewish refugees were denied entry. The 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). Of the passengers who did not disembark in Great Britain, the majority were not deported and survived the war.