Dear Wife, I cannot possibly reply to your letters today, since what I would consider to be correct today, can tomorrow be completely incorrect. Therefore everything has to be cleared up first. Hopefully we will know more tomorrow, with the help of God.
The man thinks, and God directs. Unfortunately my wish to come to the USA has not been fulfilled. Today is Wednesday, June 14, and we are nearing European waters with giant steps. Friday we are supposed to arrive already in Southampton. This morning we were called into the large dining room, and it was announced that England, France, Holland and Belgium have declared themselves ready to take in the 900 Cuba travelers. Therefore not back to Hitler. That says everything.
My Dears, can you imagine my feelings? These are facts that were communicated to us this morning. The first sign of light since Wednesday last week. Everybody was in fearful concern, what will happen to us, after everyone noticed that we were not anymore along the American Coast, but going east, in other words in the direction of Europe. Nevertheless I always kept my head up, and spoke to those who were doubtful and fearful with words of courage and comfort. But they were bad days which we spent, as if on the torture rack. It was impossible for me to continue my letter, since I had been so sure in my thoughts, that the way would lead us directly to the USA.
Only for you, my Dears, I saw myself already in the USA. To request for you and to greet you there was one. But my Dear, the solution for now, provided everything will go well as we have been told, is in many views even much better. We will not come to Havana, not America, or St. Domingo, all plans have been changed. Rather back to you in your proximity. Oh, what a feeling that is. Had we landed in Havana or St. Domingo, we would not have been able to see you for probably 2 ½ years. When the trip for me is now to one of the four countries (hopefully England) in many respects is a disappointment or a burden, so is the going to England (hopefully) also a relief. Let us hope that I will not have to call on Paul’s help, then I have it eventually available for all for you, and what that means, is not necessary to explain. Wish we were already 48 hours ahead, Manasse in a hurry always, already sent his wife a telegram. I will wait until something definitive is known. Since Manasse has his children in Belgium, he naturally wants to go to Belgium, which one can easily understand. Be as it may, we will go to England, Holland, Belgium or France via Havana/Cuba. About that there still is a lot to write, since on Shabbos, with God’s help, it will be 5 weeks since we boarded the ship in Hamburg. Three weeks up and down, dangling and fear, hope and disappointment. About that I do not want to write to you today, will postpone that for a later time.
I will assume that you are mostly informed by radio, newspaper, relief organizations, and HAPAG, about the worldwide negotiation. If the ship would have returned to the original exit port—but no, I do not want to think about that, not in my interest, but in the interest of my fellow passengers. The mess has been averted, and we want to thank dear God for that.
I will close for today.
Thursday evening June 15, 1939
Half an hour ago I sent a radiogram to you, that we are landing in Antwerp; in fact we will arrive there Saturday noon. I am extremely happy to be able to send you this good report. Again dear good Wife, hearty Mazel Tov to the lucky solution to our emigration question. Although it is no solution, it is a good change. Even if not yet the USA, so it is England that is beckoning. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to take some action from here in this respect. This evening came an announcement that a ship has left Hamburg which will take about 500 passengers to France and England, and the others are going to Belgium and Holland. Again it is Shabbos that has been chosen for us to go on land. Maybe it will be delayed until Sunday.
If I would know that the connection would exist, I would call you, but probably there is no connection anymore. So my travel to Cuba is concluded, and we thank the dear God, that it has come out that way. You, dear Bertha, for the time being please read these letters to all Dears, I will write to all, as soon as it is quiet. I close therefore and greet you all my Dears really heartily. I have, dear Mutti, and dear children always in my thoughts, and remain with love
Your
Pa
Dear reader, this concludes the letters my father wrote to my mother from on board the M/S St. Louis, at least those that have been preserved. Did he write further letters or did he communicate by phone once he was on land? I do not know the answer to that. It will no doubt leave you hanging in midair with a lot of questions. What happened then? To where was he taken after landing in Antwerp? Did he end up with his relatives in England, as he was hoping? Was he reunited with his family eventually?
I will supply the answers to the reader’s questions.
My father was assigned to the group of 181 destined for Holland. They boarded the steamer “Jan van Arckel” on Sunday morning, June 18, en route to Rotterdam. Although it would have been quicker and easier to travel by land, the Belgian authorities decreed that only those destined for Belgium could actually land in Antwerp. In Rotterdam the passengers were immediately interned in the quarantine station of Heijplaat, where hundreds of other German refugees were already waiting to go somewhere. Few would ultimately survive when the Nazis invaded Holland. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and watched by guard dogs.
How and why my father received his US visa, while my mother, my brother and myself were still in Frankfurt, and how we three were eventually able to get out of Germany in 1941 and join our father in New York, is quite another story. It is the story that I have told dozen of times in Germany, Italy and many parts of the US, and forms a part of what I have written in “My Stories” about my life in Germany from 1933 to 1941. If the reader would be interested to have me relate it in future issues, please send a Letter to the Editor to The Jewish Link, or email me at [email protected], and if there is enough expressed interest, I will try to have it serialized in The Jewish Link at a later time.
By Norbert Strauss
Translated from the German original
