Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, May 27th, 1939, a boat carrying 937 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in Germany,

was turned away from Havana, Cuba.

Only 28 immigrants were allowed off of the ship

and then a series of appeals and attempts to find a home for these refugees

ensued, appeals to let the ship come to the United States and

Canada were denied. Eventually the ship was forced to sail back to Europe. The

passengers of the ship returned to Europe spread out across the continent in the coming years

254 people who were on the SS St Louis died in the Holocaust here to discuss the

trip of the SS St Louis which has come to be known as the trip of the S.S. St. Louis, which has come to be known as the

voyage of the damned, are as always Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of

Wellesley. Hello there. Hello Jody. Hey there. Uh, can we start actually with just sort of, what's your big picture sort of thought about what this story means and then we'll get into some of the details?

I mean I think I'm really glad we're covering this

story because I feel like so much of this history gets swept under the rug

especially when we teach you know the history of World War II America is the great

Savior the Hero that comes in and you know

literally saves the day and we don't want to talk about this dark history in

which we turned away people who sought our assistance who sought our help and our ability for

our country to be a haven to people who were fleeing war.

And you know there's a lot about this story that's just devastating to say the least and it has to be has to be discussed.

Yeah. It cuts so sharply against a core American mythos, right? That the United States is the refuge of the world,

...