In May 1939, the German ocean liner MS St. Louis set out from Hamburg to Havana carrying 908 Jewish refugees. They were turned away in Cuba, then the United States and finally Canada before returning to Western Europe. The ship docked in Antwerp and its passengers were divided between the U.K., Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Refugees in the latter three countries were endangered once again when Germany invaded a year later. At least 250 of the original St. Louis passengers died during the Holocaust.
Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts immortalized this tragedy in their 1974 book Voyage of the Damned. In 1976, it was made into a film starring, among others, Faye Dunaway, Max von Sydow, Malcolm McDowell and Orson Welles. Skyhorse Publishing reprinted the book in 2010.
The heated public debate over refugees fleeing Syria's catastrophic four year civil war makes Voyage of the Damned more relevant than ever. After the attacks in Paris, the pendulum seems to be swinging from aid and acceptance to suspicion and closed borders. Voyage of the Damned serves as a reminder not to let fear and xenophobia determine immigration policies. --Tobias Mutter
