80 years ago today, the United States turned away the MS St. Louis, a ship full of German Jews fleeing the Nazi regime.
Instead of welcoming refugees seeking asylum, the American government refused to accept them. They claimed that they would pose a security risk and put American citizens in danger.
Every person on the ship was sent back. 254 of them were murdered in the Holocaust.
That same year, Congress voted down a bill to take in 20,000 Jewish refugee children.
The parallels to today are clear, and they are horrifying. The Trump administration’s anti-immigrant, anti-refugee policies — detaining asylum seekers, separating children from their families, banning Muslims, dehumanizing entire communities — come from the same fear and hatred Jews on the St. Louis faced in 1939.
Turning away the St. Louis in 1939 was wrong.
Turning away refugees and detaining and deporting asylum seekers in 2019 is wrong too.
As Jews, we’ve seen this before. We refuse to let it happen now. Because never again means never again for everyone.
