St. Louis: Canada to apologize for turning away ship of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazis

Canada will formally apologize for turning away a boat full of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939, resulting in scores of them dying, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.

In a well-received speech to a sold-out Jewish fundraising event, Trudeau said the decision by Canada to force the German ocean liner "MS St. Louis" to return to Europe was a blight on our collective past.

Trudeau wrote, "An apology in the House of Commons will not rewrite this shameful chapter of our history.It will not bring back those who perished or repair the lives shattered by tragedy. But it is our hope that this long overdue apology will bring awareness to our failings, as we vow to never let history repeat itself."

On May 13, 1939, the MS St. Louis departed Germany with close to a thousand passengers, including 907 Jewish German citizens desperate for safety and refuge from persecution. The Jewish refugees on board were not allowed to disembark at the ship’s first destination, Cuba, and were subsequently denied entry into the United States and, finally, Canada, due to its discriminatory “none is too many” immigration policy of the time. The refugees were forced to return to Europe, where many were condemned to concentration camps and 254 of the passengers were murdered during the Holocaust.

Trudeau called the turning away of the ship a "most egregious" example of the misguided policy.

-