By Kristy Puchko | Pajiba Storytellers | January 27, 2017 |
By Kristy Puchko | Pajiba Storytellers | January 27, 2017 |
Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israel’s day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews killed at the hands of the Nazis. In remembrance, Jewish educator Russel Neiss has created a Twitter account, St. Louis Manifest, to shine a light on the tragedy of a ship full of Jewish refugees.
My name is Bertha Ellen Grünthal. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered at Auschwitz pic.twitter.com/PyMnWXdpiW
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 27, 2017
My name is Margot Hirsch. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered at Auschwitz pic.twitter.com/uwMRFqxOya
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 27, 2017
My name is Ruthild Grünthal. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered at Theresienstadt pic.twitter.com/pxYclNerap
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 27, 2017
My name is Horst-Martin Grünthal. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered at Auschwitz pic.twitter.com/Xh1oZCtJak
— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 27, 2017
These, and many more refugees, died because of U.S. indifference. They were all passengers on the M.S. St Louis, a German ocean liner that carried 908 refugees seeking sanctuary from the violence of Adolf Hitler and his racist supporters. Captain Gustav Schröder tried to rescue them, sailing them to Cuba, the United States, and Canada. But at each port they were denied. So, the M.S. St Louis returned to Europe, dropping off its passengers wherever it could. Historians have uncovered that at least a quarter of these people were captured by Nazis, and subsequently murdered.
Today, remember the refugees. Remember those who died under a bigoted tyrant. Resist becoming a Good German.