Voyage of the Damned

Drama based on the book by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts about the St. Louis, a refugee ship which set sail in May 1939 with 930 German Jews on board, fleeing to Cuba from Hitler’s Germany. They had landing certificates provided by Manuel Benitas Gonzales, a Cuban official responsible for migration. He charged money for the passes and pocketed the profits. The jealousy of Cuban clerks over Gonzales’ illegal actions for self-profit, together with their hostility towards the Jewish refugees as well as the fascist tendencies of the Government, led to the landing certificates being invalidated. Even though the travelers and the company “Hamburg-America Line” who owned the ship, knew about this, they hoped that the visas which had cost so much money would suffice. The St. Louis arrived at the port in Havana after a journey of two weeks and apart from 22 travelers who had valid visas, nobody was allowed off the boat. The Cuban President, Laredo Bru, insisted that the travelers abide by Cuban law and leave the country. Despite the efforts of the American Joint, after 5 days, the ship returned to Europe. Britain, Belgium, France and Holland agreed to accept the travelers but most of them perished in the Holocaust.