It is Jewish Heritage Month and throughout this month I am sharing stories of Canada's Jewish history.
Today, it is the tragic story of MS St. Louis, when Canada refused to allow Jewish refugees from Europe entry. Of those on board, 30% later died in The Holocaust.
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Today, it is the tragic story of MS St. Louis, when Canada refused to allow Jewish refugees from Europe entry. Of those on board, 30% later died in The Holocaust.
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Comments
Pretty sick, actually.
Captain Gustav Schroder refused to return to the refugees to Europe.
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On June 2, he sailed to Florida where he was met by the Coast Guard who also denied entry to the ship.
With no other option, he chose to sail up to Canada.
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At the time, Canada had a strict anti-Jewish policy when it came to immigration. One senior Canadian official said of Jewish immigration:
"none is too many".
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Minister of Justice Ernest Lapointe stated he was "emphatically opposed" to admitting the Jewish refugees into Canada.
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Rather than go into Canadian waters, the ship continued back to Europe.
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Of those on the ship, 254 were captured by the Germans and killed in concentration camps during the war.
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