Thank you, Sol. I would be happy to give the brief synopsis and also why my last line was :"...I do not believe that to be the case".

The St. Louis was a ship which carried a full complement of Jews that had been allowed (encouraged) to leave Germany in the dark days prior to the full onset of WW2. It sailed to many countries and at each (the U S included) the passengers were not allowed to disembark ( I vaguely recall that a small number may have disembarked in Cuba and UK--I could be in error there).

As to the U S ---FDR was encouraged by the American Legion and other isolationists to not permit the disembarkation. FDR, while a sainted man in many ways, had his faults for political expediency as well.



The ship eventually returned to Germany with most of the passengers still on board and the rest is of course history as to what transpired with The Holocaust.

That is the brief history. Thank you, Sol, for asking me to elucidate. It is also the reason I made the reference to the ship and my feeling that what we are speaking of in this thread was not in that category. Happily the U S has come a long way (even if all of the world has not) and we are more a country of laws than before. Hopefully, we will evolve even more---none of it has been easy or bloodless--for sure. The injustice suffered by African / Americans in this country (and others) is akin to the Holocaust---but I am digressing. That is a whole different topic for a "thread".

I would add here that the film "Ship of Fools" (a wonderful film) is exactly the opposite of what the St. Louis was.



Bill Hahn