Voyage of the damned pdf von Gordon Thomas
Voyage of the damned a shocking true story of hope, betrayal and Nazi terror
On May 13, 1939, the ocean liner St. Louis set sail from Hamburg, one of the last ships to leave Nazi Germany before the outbreak of World War II. She had on board 937 Jews - some of whom had already been in concentration camps - who believed they had bought entry visas for Cuba. She had begun the journey of the damned. Before the St. Louis had made it halfway across the Atlantic, a power struggle had erupted between the corrupt Cuban Immigration Minister, who had issued visas, and his superior, President Bru. Result: the refugees would not be allowed to disembark. In America, the brownshirts were holding Nazi rallies in New York, and in Europe the Final Solution was about to take place.
And aboard the St. Louis, 937 refugees awaited the decision that would determine their fate. Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts have recreated history in this painstaking reconstruction of the journey. The captain of the St. Louis and his desperate battle against his conscience and his Nazi minions; the hidden motives of the German High Command for granting permission to the "clemency mission" and the attitudes of those who could have prevented the catastrophe.... and did not.