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.
Biography
Willi and Erna Dublon and their two daughters, Lore (b. 1927) and Eva (b. 1933), lived in Erfurt, Germany, where Willi owned Salamander Schuhe, a local shoe store. In 1938 the family applied for visas to the U.S. Knowing there would be a long wait, they booked passage to Cuba, where they could live in safety until their American visas came through. They sailed to Cuba on board the MS St. Louis in May 1939 along with Willi's brother Erich. When the ship returned to Europe, the family disembarked in Belgium where Erna had relatives. Erich Dublon was deported to Auschwitz on August 8, 1942, where he was killed a few weeks later on September 3. Willi Dublon and his family were deported to Auschwitz on January 15, 1944. All of them were killed.
