Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized Wednesday on behalf of his nation for turning away a ship full of Jewish refugees trying to flee Nazi Germany in 1939.
The German liner MS St. Louis was carrying 907 German Jews fleeing Nazi persecution and it also had been rejected by Cuba and the United States. The passengers were forced to return to Europe and more than 250 later died in the Holocaust.
Trudeau called the apology long overdue.
Hitler “watched on as we refused their visas, ignored their letters and denied them entry,” Trudeau said in Parliament.
“There is little doubt that our silence permitted the Nazis to come up with their own, ‘final solution’ to the so-called Jewish problem.”
He said lawmakers at the time used Canadian laws to mask anti-Semitism.
“We let anti-Semitism take hold in our communities and become our official policy,” Trudeau said. “To harbor such hatred and indifference toward the refugees was to share in the moral responsibility for their deaths.”
In the run-up to World War II and the ensuing Holocaust, the government heeded anti-Semitic sentiment and severely restricted Jewish immigration. From 1933 to 1945, only about 5,000 Jewish refugees were accepted.
The ship arrived in Canada more than six months after the Nazis in Germany attacked Jewish homes and businesses, burned 250 synagogues and killed at least 91 people, on a night which came to be known as Kristallnacht, “The Night of Broken Glass.”
Before the apology, Trudeau met with Ana Maria Gordon, a St. Louis passenger who lives in Canada, to talk about how the country could fight anti-Semitism.
"We failed them. And for that, we are sorry."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologizes on behalf of his nation for turning away ship full of Jewish refugees who were trying to flee Nazi Germany in 1939. https://t.co/tufaWwTYbo pic.twitter.com/CVL6kOTxRp
— ABC News (@ABC) November 8, 2018
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
3 Responses
Democrats never apologized for fdr turning away Jews.
I believe Trudaue was asked to apologize by people who are still busy with the Holocaust. Apologies are a waste of time, building museums are a waste of time, teaching every deatail of the Holocaust is a waste of time.
We know our history and we should be aware that violence towards us is historical and repetitive. So instead of living and breathing the past we should look to the future. The immediate future forecasts a rise in anti-Semitic incidents and we need to prepare ourselves instead of being busy wwith history you can’t change.
We all the “Holocaust education”, I see no change in how we prepare ourselves, only the same deep slumber that lulls our nation into complacency.
Apology! after years and after all of those innocent Jewish brothers and sisters were killed! Does the apology
make the our innocent Jewish brothers and sisters alive!! Really how kind of Canadians!To say apology!
The reason that they came to realize what cruel thing they did to Jews for now the middle easterners are ruling there.
The Canada did not let 250 Jewish brothers and sisters enter inside their country at the time. Now have a trip to city Totanto in Ontario, Canada which is called “Tehranto” by the locals! Tehran is capital of Iran! None or rarely any Iranian Jewish live in Toronto, but mostly are
the Iranians who are so many like crowd of the city and they all are Iranians from current Iranian regime with the same thinking and animosity to
USA and us all.
Their ideology and thinking is very anti-American. They raise their children in Canada with the same hatred to USA and One thing is different that their children are born in Canada and they are Canadian Citizens. They could enter easily to USA. They are more dangerous than the caravan or any group of immigrants for USA. I wish police on the borders would notice this more seriously who enters USA from Canadian borders. I heard some Iranians or other immigrants groups when their USA green cards get expired for being out of USA for more than 6 months and being in their own county like in Iran then trick the police on the borders of Canada and USA and come back easily to our country.
They return from their countries like Iran or other countries who are number one enemies to USA with expired green cards not to USA at first, but first to Canada, easy land Lala Land, then they enter either from boarders or airport easily. They would claim that all these time they lived in Canada (lies, they were in Iran or their own counties not in Canada) and they say they were sick (lies like this ) and could not return on time to USA to “renew their green cards on time” which is expired. They are real danger, more dangerous than Mexicans who just want to come to work hard labor in USA. I wish American government do something about this danger for us all and USA. The police should look at the names and the place of the birth and be extremely careful not let enemies enter with lies and tricks to USA from Canada. I heard that few Iranians (not Jewish ones).
May G-d nullify their tricks and keep them away from USA.