Jewish Immigration To Cuba

Beginning in 1933, Germany enforced an extensive and aggressive forced emigration policy for its Jewish population. Between the German Nazi party’s rise to power in 1933 and its surrender in 1945, over 340,000 Jews emigrated from Germany and Austria. Though unfortunately, nearly a third of these migrants were killed in concentration camps during the Holocaust as they resettled in countries that were eventually taken over by the Nazis.2 Sensing the urgency, in 1938, over 30 countries gathered at The Evian Conference to formulate a potential solution for a world with nations that were simply not prepared for this sudden influx of immigrants. While there was general opposition and resistance to the policies of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi party’s leader, several nations remained hesitant to admit Jewish refugees into their country, often …show more content…
Louis in 1939, a German transatlantic liner traveling from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba is a model example of how this fear was shared among nations around the world. To summarize, the St. Louis transported 937 passengers, primarily Jews, from Germany to Havana, Cuba, who shared the ultimate goal of transitioning to permanent settlement in the United States. Upon arrival to Cuba, 903 people were refused admission to the country and were forced to return back to Europe.4 This dismissal of refugees was fueled significantly by the fear of a loss of jobs and economic success at the domestic level, as previously mentioned, but also compounded by deep-rooted “antisemitism, xenophobia, nativism, and isolationism.”4 And at a much higher level, many countries associated Jews with a ideals and beliefs that contradicted their own, including Communism and violence. Fortunately, due to the collaboration of several Jewish organizations, these specific refugees were eventually able to secure visas in four European countries, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, and were spread out relatively equally among the