Film screening and Zoom event with survivors who sailed on the SS St. Louis
About
On 13 May 1939 the ‘St Louis’ sailed from Hamburg to the US, via Cuba, with 937 Jews on board, fleeing Nazi tyranny. They held landing certificates issued by the Cuban Director-General of Immigration and planned to wait in Havana until the US visas they had applied for were issued. But even before the St Louis arrived in Cuba, the landing documents were revoked. A huge anti-Jewish rally was held in Havana, urging Cubans to ‘fight the Jews until the last one is driven out’. Five days later, the Cubans ordered the ship out of Cuban waters. The St Louis sailed so close to Florida that the passengers could see the lights of Miami, but the American State Department refused to allow them to land. The St Louis was forced to return to Europe, where Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and France agreed to take some of the refugees. With the outbreak of World War II, many of the original passengers of the St Louis eventually fell victim to the Nazi ‘Final Solution’.
Holocaust Education Trust Ireland in association with the SS St. Louis Legacy Project are pleased present an evening with director of the award winning film ‘Complicit’ and survivors who sailed on the St Louis Sonja Geismar and John Shilling.
Register for this event to receive access to the award-winning film ‘Complicit’. Which can be watched ahead of the event. Log on to the Zoom event on 27 April 2022 for an engaging and thought-provoking evening with the film director Robert Krakow.
Sonja Geismar and John Shilling both sailed on the St Louis in 1939 and they will share their stories at a live stream on 27 April on Zoom at 19.00 followed by discussion and Q&A.
