This photograph shows the S.S. St. Louis surrounded by smaller vessels in the port of Havana. As the USHMM online exhibition on the St. Louis explains, many of Germany’s Jews sought refuge abroad in 1939 as Nazi anti-Jewish measures dramatically intensified.  Throughout the Reich, tens of thousands lined up at foreign consulates desperate for visas.  Few countries, even the United States with its restrictive quota system, were willing to welcome these refugees.  Most of the over 900 Jews sailing on the St. Louis held landing permits to Cuba, where they hoped to wait for the United States to call their quota number; however, Cuban officials denied entry to all but 28 upon their landing.  Even after sailing along the Florida coast, the U.S. denied its entrance into American waters, and the ship turned back to Europe.  The passengers found refuge in Belgium, the Netherlands, England, and France, but because the Nazis overran western Europe the next year, few survived the Holocaust.

Relationship to guideline

The Holocaust was not inevitable; it took place because individuals, groups, and nations made decisions to act or not to act.  Many countries refused to accept refugees even after Nazi persecution increased after 1938.  For example, the United States had a strict quota system limiting the immigration of German and Austrian nationals.  Neither the White House nor Congress was willing to increase the quota.