on May 13, 1939, the St. Louis steamed from Hamburg, Germany...
...Most of these Jews refugees would eventually die after Franklin D. Roosevelt [see Amos's good guy list] also rejected them and sent them back to Europe to face the Nazis.

Roosevelt was the leader of a democracy and his rejection of these innocent people was a crime against humanity.

Roosevelt's rejection of the Jewish refugees was the result of his fear that he would antagonize enough hypocrites in this country to cost him the 1940 election.

On June 17, 1939, the St. Louis docked at Antwerp. The end of that journey was the beginning of the Jewish holocaust.

Most of the refugees perished in Nazi labor camps, some fled to Palestine, some went into hiding during the war and then ended up in refugee camps.

Franklin Roosevelt, who turned away the Jewish refugees, has yet to be criticized for this crime against humanity.

Roosevelt's policy on Jewish refugees during WWII has been swept under the rug.

Only a small percent of Americans understand that Roosevelt would not accept the hundred of thousands of Jews who sought refuge before or during the war. If Roosevelt had adopted a policy of accepting the Jews and relocating them in this country, or to another safe haven, instead of turning them away, the Jewish holocaust would not have happened and this country would have benefited by this noble action.

And we would have less reason to criticize the French, who themselves were rounded up and shot if they were found harboring a Jew or any other "undesireable" or "enemy of the state."..."
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/06/15/224025.xml

"On June 8th, an eleven year old wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt:

Mother of our Country. I am so sad the Jewish people have to suffer so . . .Please let them land in America . . . It hurts me so that I would give them my little bed if it was the last thing I had because I am an American let us Americans not send them back to that slater (sic) house. We have three rooms we do not use. [My] mother would be glad to let someone have them."http://www.ajhs.org/publications/chapters/chapter.cfm?documentID=303