Gustav Schröder
Gustav Schröder | |
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Hadersleben, German Empire | |
Died | 10 January 1959 (age 73) |
Nationality | German |
Known for | Saving 937 German Jews aboard the MS St. Louis |
Righteous Among the Nations |
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By country |
Gustav Schröder (German: [ˈɡʊs.taf ˈʃʁøː,dɐ] ⓘ; 27 September 1885 – 10 January 1959) was a German sea captain most remembered and celebrated for his role in attempting to save 937 German-Jewish passengers on his ship MS St. Louis having sailed from Hamburg to escape Nazis in 1939. Disembarkation of the nearly all of the passengers at the official destination port of Havana, Cuba, was refused in the midst of Cuban political turmoil and corruption. Knowing the risks to his passengers of returning them to Hamburg, Capt. Schröder sailed on to several other countries, in order to save the lives of his passengers. Most notably, America and Canada refused his plea for landing passengers as refugees.
Career
Schröder began his seafaring career in 1902 at the age of 16 aboard the training ship
Voyage of the Damned
Schröder was next appointed captain of
The events of the voyage are told in the 1974 book Voyage of the Damned, written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, which was the basis of a 1976 film drama of the same name and the book The German Girl by Armando Lucus Correa.
Later years
Still in command of St. Louis, Schröder prepared for another transatlantic voyage, but his passengers were not allowed to board. En route, Britain and France had declared war on Nazi Germany. Returning from Bermuda, Schröder evaded a Royal Navy blockade and docked at neutral Murmansk. With a skeleton crew, he managed to slip past Allied patrols and reached Hamburg on 1 January 1940. He was assigned a desk job and never went to sea again. After the war, he worked as a writer and tried to sell his story. He was released from denazification proceedings on the testimony of some of his surviving Jewish refugee passengers.[1]
Schröder was married and lived with his family in Hamburg. He died in 1959 at the age of 73.[2]
Honors and tributes
Schröder received much praise for his actions during the
In popular culture
In the 1976 drama film about the St. Louis, Voyage of the Damned, Schröder is played by Swedish-French actor Max von Sydow.[4]
In the 2017 book Refugee, Schröder is included in the story about a fictional boy (Josef Landau) aboard the St. Louis.
References
- ISBN 9781937624118.
- ^ Boroson, Warren (4 December 2009). "The true 'voyage of the damned'". The Jewish Standard. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
- ^ "Gustav Schroeder - The Righteous Among The Nations". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
- ^ Matt Brunson (3 October 2013). "From Here to Eternity, House of Wax, The Little Mermaid among new home entertainment titles". Creative Loafing Charlotte.