Born in Brooklyn in 1948, Susan Berman is the daughter of German Holocaust survivors. Her mother Ruth Simon Heinemann took the Kindertransport to England in 1939, a few months before other members of her family boarded the ill-fated ship, the St. Louis. Berman's father, Manfred Heinemann, was arrested on Kristallnacht, but after his release he fled Germany and immigrated to the United States, where he served in the U.S. Army. Thanks to Susan, the Simon family's story runs through The Tragedy of the St. Louis.
ORAL HISTORY
This digital exhibit follows Susan Berman's family across space and time as they fled Germany, hoping for a better life in the United States. It includes testimony related to the time that four members of the Simon family spent aboard the M.S. St. Louis.
GEORGIA JOURNEYSThis Twitter "Moment," created by the Museum of History and Holocaust Education, follows the journey of the M.S. St. Louis from Europe, to Cuba, and back again.
TWITTER DIARYAudio descriptions in English, Spanish, and German:
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Panel 7
Panel 8
German Panel Descriptions
Credits
Archival Footage
Generously shared with us by the JDC Archives, this footage documents the journey of the St. Louis from Hamburg, Germany, to Havana, Cuba, and then back to Antwerp, Belgium. The Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) was instrumental in negotiating asylum for the St. Louis refugees in Belgium, France, England, and the Netherlands, after they were refused entry in Cuba and the United States. Learn more about the role of the JDC Archives in the St. Louis saga.
Further Reading
To learn about the fate of every passenger aboard the St. Louis, check out Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust by Sarah A. Ogilvie and Scott Miller, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. Former Director of Curatorial Affairs at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Scott Miller was slated to give a book talk at an opening event planned for the Tragedy of the St. Louis exhibit at Roosevelt's Little White House in Warm Springs, GA, in June 2020, but the event had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about Miller and Ogilvie's project and the fate of the St. Louis passengers.