Volume XXX No. 2 February, 1975 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE AssoaAiwM Of mnsH REIVES HI CREAT BRITAIH Margot PottlUser individuals while they were on German soil than to refuse them admission to this country and enforce their return to Ger­ many." They were therefore to be retumed to Germany before any promises were made. A SHIP THAT SHAMED THE WORLD ? In the event, the 288 who were allowed to come to this country, were the only ones to be safe. After the outbreak of war many of the others were eventually deported from The Voyage of the St. Louis their countries of refuge and died. Oral history is an increasingly frequent Cuba for which they had obtained expensive A Well-Written Record method of historical research which has entrance permits. The St. Louis was one of Voyage of the Damned is a well-written added a new dimension to the writing of his- many such ships, but it was the largest and and well-researched book which makes fas­ J<?ry. In itself it is nothing new. Since met with an unheard-of measure of vicis­ cinating, if harassing reading. The authors historical events were first recorded for situdes. When it reached Cuba, the permits have interviewed a great number of sur­ Posterity, writers had to a great extent to turned out to be spurious and, except for a vivors, searched the files of organisations ^ely on personal memories of eye-witnesses few special cases, one of them an attempted and official bodies and consulted a number and participants. Technically tape-recorders suicide, the passengers were refused per­ of diaries and publications. They have given have helped to evolve new methods and mission to land. a convincing day-by-day picture of the plight enabled researchers to collect the testimony of these unfortunate people haunted by ^' much greater numbers of such persons, In Search of Refuge secret fears even during the first few days of ^ml to investigate in depth happenings A desperate struggle ensued which in­ exultation, and they have succeeded to rescue *nich, whilst not influencing the course of from oblivion one single event among the ^vents, are worth remembering for the light volved the governments of many countries, relief organisations, individual politicians and many Jewish tragedies of that time. they actually throw on them. There remain the reservations I mentioned It is obviously a technique fraught with humanitarians, and which was to last for nearly a month. The world press took a before. With all good intentions and with the ^nger. Human memory, alas, is selective and highest regard for truth, it is almost impos­ therefore fallible. After a lapse of time it lively interest in the situation, and at one point a well-known broadcaster coined the sible for anyone who had not himself lived tends to erase certain features and accen­ through those troubled times to recreate the tuate others, and witnesses are liable to de- phrase of the ship that shamed the world, a phrase that was to be transmitted by the atmosphere, and to sort fact from fiction. ^^^ibe the roles they themselves played in The captain of the ship, Schroeder, is un­ the light in which they would want them to radio stations of a dozen countries. The fore­ be most relief organisation involved was the doubtedly the hero of the story if one is al­ , see--W.n4 anoLidu aaos thenityj woulv>\.ruAdu likxxAe^ theLuteimn tK\jo haviiav^e American Joint which sent a special rep­ lowed to use the term. He did his best to lift I'een played. The longer the lapse in time, resentative to bargain with the Cuban presi­ the cloud of oppression from the moment the he more arbitrary is the selection of the dent for the lives of the refugees, but he ship left Hamburg and inspired his crew to ctual witnesses. Some may have just dis­ failed to satisfy the monetary demands on look after the passengers with compassion appeared, others have died or failed in which entrance would have been granted: and humanity. After the enforced departure ealth or are unwilling to revive a painful nearly half a million dollars. Eventually the from Cuba he did his utmost—disregarding Past. The ones who offer themselves are ship, running short of food and oil, was or­ orders from his superiors—to find asylum for tten outgoing people unable to distinguish dered out of Cuban waters and began to them and he is reported to have planned to etween fact and fiction or rather imagina- haunt the coasts of American and European run the St. Louis aground close to Beachy ^°n, and the wealth of information they so countries, until at the very last moment the Head in Sussex, set fire to her and evacuate eadily supply, is often likely to distort the governments of Belgium, Holland and France the passengers rather than return them to j^al picture. It is therefore essential that the offered to admit two thirds of the pass­ Germany. ^ terviewer should have a solid background engers, whilst the remainder were grudgingly Even so it is difficult to believe that sa "''^^.sailable facts and figures, and at the given asyliun in Britain. As A. J. Sherman during the voyage he should have repeatedly g.'he time a grasp of the intricacies of the records in his Island of Refuge (reviewed in threatened the NS Ortsgruppenleiter on tuation he is researching. One well-known January 1974 of AJR Information), this was board the liner, that he should have accused xample of the use to which oral history has done at the instigation of Otto M. Schiff, him of mutinous behaviour and survived not ^een recently put, is Collins' and Lapierre's chairman of the German Jewish Aid Com­ only that particular voyage of the St. Louis, g •'^usalem which was published at the mittee, but only after a lengthy struggle. He but quite a few later ones. According to the ™e time as Dan Kurzman's Genesis 1948 was at first told "that such an acceptance of authors, this party official Schiendick had ^a covers the same ground, the 1948 Jewish refugees, none of them vetted, might operate been placed on the ship, together with six 0 ^ of Independence. They obviously agree as a precedent which could lead to repetition other party members disguised as firemen, in con f ^^^ie facts, but where they have re- of a Gestapo-inspired ruse ad infinitum." The order to obtain espionage material from an froiTi conversations and negotiations Home Office only yielded after the Joint and Abwehr official, i.e. a spy, in Havana and nea 1 *^^ memories of participants, they the Central British Fund had agreed to be managed to do so in spite of close observa­ diff ^ always differ. They may have asked responsible for those accepted into the tion by American counter-espionage agents, . ^^rent questions or caught their subjects United Kingdom. The Home Office stressed F.B.I, men, etc. It is all just possible, but *u Oifferent moods. that these special arrangements could not be where did the authors find this material? Sir Oflp ^^ therefore with some reservation that "regarded as a precedent for the reception in Herbert Emerson, High Commissioner for Re­ by approaches The Voyage of the Damned future of refugees who may leave Germany fugees, is said to have been Chairman of the (b^ordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts before definitive arrangements have been Intemational Committee on political refu­ =. AZI^^ ^°d Stoughton, London, Sydney, made for their admittance elsewhere." gees. — scH^.^^d, Toronto 1974, £3-50). It is a de- Earlier in the book a Diisseldorf professor Thomas and Morgan-Witts provide much is said to have picked up his visa at the lars^ 5 of the voyage of the St. Louis, a stronger arguments used by the Home Office. IHa^^ Hapag liner which left Hamburg in Stuttgart Oberrat, the federation of the One official is quoted as stating that "prob­ Jev»dsh congregations in Wurttemberg. It is 1'hev ^'^^^ ^^^ Jewish refugees on board. ably a proportion of the passengers are un­ to a^^.^ ^^^^ U.S. quota numbers and hoped *ait the granting of an American visa in desirables. It would be easier to reject such Continued on page 2, column 1 AJR INPORMATION February, 1975 Page 2 A Ship That Shamed MISCELLANEOUS NEWS the World? Continued from page 1 UNESCO JEWS AND CHRISTIANS Vatican Document conceivable that they had got hold of some As a result of the two anti-Israel re­ solutions recently passed by Unesco, Israel The Commission for Religious Relations of the spurious Cuban visas, but it is not has suspended payment of her biennial very likely. It is far more likely that the pro­ with the Jews was set up by Pope Paul VI $25,000 (about £10,850). last October, headed by Cardinal Jan Wil- fessor went to Stuttgart to the U.S. Consulate Three Nobel Prize-winners representing the lebrands. A document giving guidelines and where all affidavits for Southem and West­ American intellectual community have suggestions issued by the commission, un­ em Germany had to be lodged before the wamed Dr. Kurt Waldheim, the UN Secre­ compromisingly condemns all forms of anti­ quota numbers were issued. What I find dif­ tary-General, that the resolutions "will in­ semitism and discrimination "which, in any ficult to credit however, is a passage which terfere with free intellectual discourse across frontiers" and "gravely compromise the func­ case, the dignity of the human person alone reads: "Professor Weiler and his wife had tioning of the UN agency".