Barnes. Pdf

 
Chapters 
59
money from them. The President had therefore issued a decree on 6th May revoking the validity of tourist visas when the true 
purpose of travel was immigration. Did this decree apply to those on board the St Louis or not? The ship had sailed from 
Hamburg after the law had been promulgated; on the other hand, the landing permits had been issued earlier. It was a question 
on which much argument and money could be spent. The number of the presidential decree was 937, which the superstitious 
might have noticed was also the number of passengers on board when the St Louis left Europe. 
A delay developed. Nineteen Cubans and Spaniards were allowed to disembark, plus three passengers with authentic visas; 
the remaining 900 or so Jews waited for news of the negotiations which involved, variously, the Cuban President, his director 
of immigration, the shipping line, the local relief committee, the ship's captain and a lawyer flown in from the New York 
headquarters of the Joint Distribution Committee. These talks lasted several days. Factors to be considered were 
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money, pride, political ambition and Cuban public opinion. The captain of the St Louis, while distrustful of both local 
politicians and his own shipping line, was convinced at least of one thing: that if Cuba proved inaccessible, the United States, 
to which most of his passengers had the right of eventual entry, would surely accept them earlier than promised. 
Some of the marooned passengers were less confident, and became unnerved by the uncertainties, the delay, the heat. They 
had spent so long reaching a place of safety, and were now so near. Friends and relatives continued to circle the liner in small 
boats; a fox terrier, sent on ahead from Germany, was rowed out each day and held up towards the rail and its distant owners. 
A passengers' committee had been formed, to whom the shipping company gave free cabling facilities; appeals for intercession 
were despatched to influential people, including the wife of the Cuban president. It was during this time that two passengers 
attempted suicide, one with a syringe and tranquillizers, another by slashing his writs and jumping into the sea; both survived. 
Thereafter, to prevent further suicide attempts, there were security patrols at night; the lifeboats were always ready, and the 
ship was lit up by floodlights. These measures reminded some Jews of the concentration camps they had recently left. 
The St Louis was not meant to leave Havana empty after dropping its 937 emigrants. Some 250 passengers were booked on 
the return trip to Hamburg via Lisbon. One suggestion was that 250 of the Jews could at least be disembarked to make room 
for those on shore. But how would you choose the 250 who were to be allowed off the Ark? Who would separate the clean 
from the unclean? Was it to be done by casting lots? 
The predicament of the St Louis was not a disregarded, local issue. The voyage was being logged by the German, British 
and American press. Der Stürmer commented that if the Jews chose to take up their return passages to Germany, they should 
be accommodated at Dachau and Buchenwald. Meanwhile, in Havana harbour, American reporters managed to get on board 
what they nicknamed, perhaps too easily, 'the ship that shamed the world'. Such publicity does not necessarily help refugees. If 
[p. 185] 
the shame belongs to the whole world, then .why should one particular country - which had already accepted many Jewish 
refugees - be so frequently expected to bear it? The world, apparently, did not feel its shame so strongly that it moved its hand 
to its wallet. The Cuban government accordingly voted to exclude the immigrants and ordered the St Louis to leave the island's 
territorial waters. This did not mean, the President added, that he had closed the door on negotiations; merely that he would not 
consider further offers until the ship had left harbour. 
How much are refugees? It depends how desperate they are, how rich their patrons, how greedy their hosts. In the world of 
entry permits and panic it is always a seller's market. Prices are arbitrary, speculative, evanescent. The lawyer from the Joint 
Distribution Committee put forward an opening offer of $50,000 for the safe landing of the Jews, and was told that the sum 
might usefully be trebled. But if trebled, why not trebled again? The director of immigration - who had already received $150 a 
head for the landing permits which had not been honoured - suggested to the shipping line a fee of $250,000 to help get decree 
number 937 rescinded. A purported intermediary of the President seemed to think that the Jews could be landed for 
$1,000,000. In the end, the Cuban government was to fix on a bond of $500 for each Jew. This price had a certain logic, being 
the amount of surety which each official immigrant into the country had to post. So the 907 passengers on board, who had 
already paid their outward and return fares, who had bought their permits and then been reduced to an official ten 
Deutschmarks each, would cost $453,500. 
As the liner started its engines, a group of women charged the accommodation ladder; they were repelled by Cuban police 
with pistols. During its six days in Havana harbour the St Louis had become a tourist attraction, and its departure was watched 
by an estimated crowd of 100,000. The captain had been given permission by his superiors in Hamburg to sail for any port 
which would accept his passengers. At first he steamed idly in ever-widening circles, waiting to be recalled to Havana; then 
[p. 186]
headed north for Miami. When the ship reached the American coast it was greeted by a US coastguard cutter. But this apparent 
welcome was a rebuff: the cutter was there to see that the St Louis did not enter territorial waters. The State Department had 
already decided that if the Jews were turned down by Cuba, they would not be granted entry into the United States. Money was 
a less direct factor here: high unemployment and reliable xenophobia were sufficient justifications. 
The Dominican Republic offered to accept the refugees for the standardized market price of $500 a head; but this merely 
duplicated the Cuban tariff. Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Argentina were all approached; each declined 
to bear the world's shame single-handed. In Miami the immigration inspector announced that the St Louis would not be 
allowed to dock in any US port. 
The liner, denied entry to the whole American continent, continued steaming northwards. Those on board were aware that 
they were approaching the point at which it would have to swing east and head inevitably back to Europe. Then, at 4.50 on the 
afternoon of Sunday, 4th June, a news flash was picked up. The President of Cuba had apparently given permission for the 

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J
ULIAN 
B
ARNES
: A History of the World in 10 ½