1/10/2024 0 Comments 1939 german u boat watchThe Director-General of the Cuban immigration office, Manuel Benitez Gonzalez, had come under a great deal of public scrutiny for the illegal sale of landing certificates. Indeed, the passengers became victims of bitter infighting within the Cuban government. Even before the ship sailed from Hamburg, right-wing Cuban newspapers deplored its impending arrival and demanded that the Cuban government cease admitting Jewish refugees. Louis attracted a great deal of media attention. Entry to Cuba required written authorization from the Cuban Secretaries of State and Labor and the posting of a $500 bond (The bond was waived for US tourists). The passengers, who held landing certificates and transit visas issued by the Cuban Director-General of Immigration, did not know that Cuban President Federico Laredo Bru had issued a decree just a week before the ship sailed that invalidated all recently issued landing certificates. Louis, the Hamburg-Amerika Line, knew even before the ship sailed that its passengers might have trouble disembarking in Cuba. The German Foreign Office and the Propaganda Ministry also hoped to exploit the unwillingness of other nations to admit large numbers of Jewish refugees to justify the Nazi regime's anti-Jewish goals and policies both domestically in Germany and in the world at large. Since the Kristallnacht (literally the “Night of Crystal,” more commonly known as the "Night of Broken Glass") pogrom of November 9–10, 1938, the German government had sought to accelerate the pace of forced Jewish emigration. The passengers themselves were not informed most were ultimately compelled to return to Europe. ![]() The US State Department in Washington, the US consulate in Havana, some Jewish organizations, and refugee agencies were all aware of the situation. Louis sailed, there were signs that political conditions in Cuba might keep the passengers from landing there. Most were German citizens, some were from eastern Europe, and a few were officially "stateless."The majority of the Jewish passengers had applied for US visas, and had planned to stay in Cuba only until they could enter the United States.īut by the time the St. Almost all were Jews fleeing from the Third Reich. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba. ![]() On May 13, 1939, the German transatlantic liner St.
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