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Voyage of the St. Louis - A Rochester Family's Holocaust Survival Story

Jewish refugees aboard the MS St. Louis while the ship was docked in Havana.
en.wikipedia.org
Jewish refugees aboard the MS St. Louis while the ship was docked in Havana.

It was 76 years ago this week - May 27, 1939 - when the German transatlantic ocean liner St. Louisarrived from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuba.

On board were 937 passengers; almost all of them Jews seeking refuge from Nazi control.

The majority of the Jewish passengers had applied for US visas and wanted to stay in Cuba only until they could enter the U.S.

The Cuban government admitted just 28 passengers.  The remaining 908 sailed north until they could see the lights of Miami.

They pleaded with the U.S. government to let them enter the country. But the requests were denied.

The State Department said they had to wait their turn behind thousands of other German Jews waiting to get into the United States.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has been on a 10-year quest to discover the fate of each passenger on the St. Louis. What became of them when that ship was turned back to Europe?

We know how this story ended for one man and his family who eventually found a new life in Rochester.

Peter Silverstein was just a year old when he sailed on The St. Louis with his parents, older sister and a few other family members.  

Click on the audio link above to hear Peter's son, Michael Silverstein, share his family's story.

Michael Silverstein will be speaking about this tonight at a 7:30 event at Temple Beth El. Also attending tonight's event are Michael's parents and Scott Miller, director of curatorial affairs at the Unites States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Follow thislinkto an online exhibition on the Voyage of the St. Louis.  It details how the museum has tried to find the fates of the passengers.

Beth Adams joined WXXI as host of Morning Edition in 2012 after a more than two-decade radio career. She was the longtime host of the WHAM Morning News in Rochester. Her career also took her from radio stations in Elmira, New York, to Miami, Florida.