Photo of Lillian and George Friedman boarding the “St. Louis,” May 13, 1939. It retroactively rendered the permits void, requiring an additional certificate from the Cuban Ministry of Labor and a deposit of 500 dollars. This bureaucratic trap ensured that when the St. Louis reached Havana\u2019s harbor on May 27, most passengers would not be allowed to disembark.<\/p>\n The St. Louis<\/em> tragedy was not an isolated incident, as I was able to find out from the YIVO Institute\u2019s repository. In the months preceding and following this event, other ships as the Conte Grande<\/em> or General San Martin<\/em> \u2013 also met rejection at Latin American ports. However, negotiations with the respective countries regarding landing permits were more successful than those of the passengers of St. Louis<\/em>. These turnarounds reflected a regional hardening of immigration policy driven by anti-Semitic political pressure and media agitation.<\/p>\n Summary of the letters by Benjamin Mellibovsky regarding the Conte Grande<\/em> and General San Martin<\/em> from 3 March 1939, South American representative of the HICEM Central Office. In the case of St. Louis<\/em> only 22 Jewish refugees were permitted ashore\u2014mainly those who held valid U.S. visas. Lillian and Georg Friedmann were among the fortunate few. In a 1975 letter to author Max Morgan Witts, whose book Voyage of the Damned<\/em> documented the tragedy, Lillian recounted how they had secured U.S. visas at the last dime thanks to the intervention of Georg\u2019s cousin, Sadie Annenberg. Not only it \u201ccosts her quite some money\u201d to get them out, but she also supported them during their months-long wait in Cuba before they continued on to the United States.<\/p>\n Letter from Lillian Friedman to Max Morgan Witts, June 20, 1975. The remaining passengers faced fear and uncertainty. Efforts to find refuge in the United States, Canada, and the Dominican Republic all failed. During my research in the \u201cSos\u00faa Archives\u201d, I stumbled upon a lesser-known proposal: the creation of an agricultural settlement project for Jewish refugees on Cuba\u2019s Isla de Pinos (now Isla de la Juventud). As an island studies scholar this immediately caught my attention. Since time immemorial, islands have functioned not only as places of longing or everyday life, but also as places of refuge. Isla de Pinos, located about 60 miles southeast of the main Cuban island, was sparsely populated at the time and was able to offer a new life to about 300 Jewish families.<\/p>\n Correspondence between the Committee for the Care of the Jewish Tuberculous and the National Coordinating Committee revealed discussions about a temporary refuge modeled on the Sos\u00faa settlement project in the Dominican Republic, which was decided at the refugee conference in \u00c9vian in July 1938.<\/p>\n Papers of Cecilia Razovsky, P-290, Box 4 Folder 6. Collection of the American Jewish Historical Society.<\/p>\n By this time, however, a deadline set by Cuban President Bru had already lapsed. Unaware of this bureaucratic expiration, the negotiating parties\u2019 hopes were soon overtaken by political reality. The St. Louis<\/em> was ultimately ordered to return to Europe. Eventually, the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees the Intergovernmental Committee for Refugees managed to get them accepted in England, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Tragically, a third of the former passengers would later perish in the Holocaust.<\/p>\n In contrast to the settlement project in Sos\u00faa, which has left its traces in the Dominican Republic to this day, the Isla de Pinos project was never realized in the years that followed.<\/p>\n Eighty-six years later, these voyages remain a haunting reminder of how borders, bureaucracy, and bigotry can turn a lifesaving ship into political liabilities\u2013 and an island into either sanctuary or unattainable utopia.<\/p>\n \u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n Related Materials:<\/strong><\/p>\n George and Lillian Friedman Collection<\/a> (AR 7223)<\/p>\n HIAS-HICEM Central Offices, New York: Transportation<\/a> (RG 245.4.20)<\/p>\n![\"Lillian](\"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Blog-Nimfuhr-1.jpg\")
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\nGeorge und Lillian Friedman Collection, AR 7223, Folder 1. Collection of Leo Baeck Institute.<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n
\nHIAS & HICEM Main Offices, N.Y. HIAS. RG 245.4.20, Folder 1. Collection of YIVO Archives.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n
\nGeorge und Lillian Friedman Collection, AR 7223, Folder 1. Collection of Leo Baeck Institute.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/p>\n