Voyage of the damned

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340181206 ISBN 13: 9780340181201

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, 1974

On May 13, 1939, the luxury liner "St. Louis" sailed from Hamburg, one of the last ships to leave Nazi Germany before World War II erupted. Aboard were 937 Jews--some had already been in concentration camps--who believed they had bought visas to enter Cuba. The voyage of the damned had begun.Before the "St. Louis" was halfway across the Atlantic, a power struggle ensued between the corrupt Cuban immigration minister who issued the visas and his superior, President Bru. The outcome: The refugees would not be allowed to land in Cuba.In America, the Brown Shirts were holding Nazi rallies in Madison Square Garden; anti-Semitic Father Coughlin had an audience of fifteen million. Back in Germany, plans were being laid to implement the final solution. And aboard the "St. Louis," 937 refugees awaited the decision that would determine their fate.Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts have re-created history in this meticulous reconstruction of the voyage of the "St. Louis." Every word of their account is true: the German High Command's ulterior motive in granting permission for the "mission of mercy;" the confrontations between the refugees and the German crewmen; the suicide attempts among the passengers; and the attitudes of those who might have averted the catastrophe, but didn't.In reviewing the work, the "New York Times" was unequivocal: "An extraordinary human document and a suspense story that is hard to put down. But it is more than that. It is a modern allegory, in which the SS "St. Louis" becomes a symbol of the SS "Planet Earth." In this larger sense the book serves a greater purpose than mere drama."

Product Description:

"An extraordinary human document and a suspense story that is hard to put down."—The New York Times

In May 1939, the SS St. Louis set sail from Hamburg carrying 937 German Jews seeking asylum from Nazi persecution. Unknown to the captain, the ship was merely a pawn of Nazi propaganda. Among the crew were members of the dreaded Gestapo, and the steward himself was on a mission for the SS. Made into an Academy Award–winning film in 1976, Voyage of the Damned is the gripping, day-by-day account of how those refugees on board the liner struggled to survive. 24 b&w illustrations

About the Author:

Gordon Thomas is a bestselling author of forty books published worldwide, including Gideon’s Spies and Secrets and Lies. He lives in Ireland.