In May of 1939—mere months before the beginning of World War II—the S.S. St. Louis sailed from Germany to Cuba. The 937 passengers on board were nearly all Jewish, fleeing Nazism and seeking refuge in the U.S.
However, concerns around security and the economy, antisemitism, and xenophobia led the governments of Cuba, Canada, and the U.S. to refuse the passengers. The ship sailed back across the Atlantic, and as the Nazis invaded and conquered more of Europe, 532 of the St. Louis passengers were trapped. By the end of the Holocaust, 254 of those people had been murdered. They feared for their lives and fled their homes, only to be met with hostility and closed borders. They were returned to perish under the very regime they had nearly escaped.
In 1948, responding to the horrors of World War II and learning from stories like that of the S.S. St. Louis, the U.S. established a formal refugee system that continues to this day. People fleeing persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion can claim asylum in the U.S.
Today, many are embracing anti-immigrant rancor, misinformation, and paranoia. As global migration increases, we need to remember the importance of providing safe haven to those fleeing violence. By restricting the St. Louis passengers from entering the U.S., we condemned more than half of them to unthinkable torture under Nazi occupation, and over a quarter of them to death. We cannot return to cruel indifference. We must not abandon the tragic lesson we learned 75 years ago.
I’m Frankie DiCiaccio, and that’s my perspective.
