The federal Liberals are working on an apology for the Canadian government’s 1939 decision to turn away a boat of German Jews seeking asylum in Canada.
The ship bearing 900 Jews was turned away from both Cuba and the United States before a group of Canadians tried to convince the then PM Mackenize King’s government to let it dock in Halifax.While history records King trying to convince Frederick Blair, his immigration minister at the time — to consider their plea, the minister ultimately refused.
The ship returned to Europe. While some passengers were taken in by Belgium, France, Holland and the UK, about 500 ended up back in Germany, half of whom did not survive the Holocaust.
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