On May 13, 1939, the German transatlantic liner MS St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba, carrying 937 passengers, most of them German Jews. When the ship arrived in Havana, the passengers learned that the landing certificates they had purchased were invalid, and the Cuban government forced the St. Louis to leave its harbor. As the ship sailed toward Miami, passengers sent telegrams to loved ones and public officials in the United States pleading for assistance. But they did not have entry visas, and the US government did not allow the passengers to land.
After the St. Louis passengers failed to find refuge in the Western Hemisphere, the ship sailed back to Europe. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee aid organization worked with the US State Department to persuade four countries—Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium—to admit the passengers. One year later, many of the refugees found themselves living under Nazi occupation again, after Germany invaded multiple western European countries. Of the 937 St. Louis passengers, 254 were murdered in the Holocaust.
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