In March of 1939 Hitler seized Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlain spoke of appeasement, and so many people wanted to believe him that the voices begging the world to stop Hitler went unheard.
A month later Karl came home, a wide grin on his face. Lena was simmering bean soup. Thick, the way he liked it.
“You look like that cat in Alice in Wonderland.”
“You’ll never believe it!” he said.
“What? What is it?”
“I’ve just had a letter from my parents.”
Her eyes widened. Letters from loved ones in Nazi-occupied countries were rare. “And?”
“Next month they will board a ship in Hamburg and sail to Cuba!”
Her mouth fell open. “Really?”
He nodded eagerly. “The ship will carry almost one thousand Jewish refugees. They will stay in Havana for a while, and after that—“
She cut him off. “We can bring them here!” She waved the wooden spoon she’d been using to stir the soup. “How wonderful!”
“They say to expect a telegram from Havana toward the end of May.”
“Karl. We must celebrate.”
“Yes.” His soft brown eyes were shining. “I think rum. Do we have any?”
She giggled. “No, but I will go out and get some. This is wonderful news.”
“They will love you.”
She gave him a shy smile. He hugged her, then patted her stomach, which, at six months, was nicely rounded. “And when the baby comes—”
Lena cut in again. “What’s the name of this magic ship?”
“The St. Louis.”
* * *
The ship sailed from Hamburg on May thirteenth. Lena and Karl made preparations. They decided his parents would take their bedroom until they found their own place. Karl and Lena would sleep in the living room. They bought a used couch, which opened into a bed. Lena planned menus for two weeks and brought home grocery bags stuffed with food.
The ship was due to land in Havana on May 27th. But the day passed with no telegram from Karl’s parents. When there was still no word by evening the next day, they began to worry.
The story didn’t take long to emerge. Once the ship entered Cuban waters, Cuba’s pro-Fascist president, Federico Laredo Bru, decided to ignore the refugees’ documents. Only twenty-two of one thousand Jews were allowed to enter Cuba. The rest were forced to stay on the ship. The refugees appealed to America to let them in, and a chorus of voices on both sides of the issue joined in. There were marches, hundreds of letters written to FDR, poignant stories about the refugees on the ship.
There were also those who demanded the ship and its cargo be turned away. Negotiations between Cuba, the US, and even the Dominican Republic seesawed with good news one day, bad news the next. It seemed as if the entire world was holding its breath.
Ultimately, the nay-sayers prevailed. On June seventh, negotiations failed, and the St. Louis was forced to return to Europe. Lena and Karl were devastated. Karl sank into such a severe depression Lena worried he might do something crazy. She hid the kitchen knives in the back of the cabinet.
Several European countries eventually took in some the refugees, but those who went to Belgium, France, or the Netherlands were trapped when Hitler invaded those countries a year later. A few months after the ship returned to Europe, Karl got a letter from his parents. They had settled in France. That was the last time he heard from them.
* * *
At the beginning of August, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to FDR. In it, he summarized the latest scientific thinking on chain reactions, uranium, and fission. Then he wrote:
“This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable—though much less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of this type may thus be constructed.”
On September first, Hitler invaded Poland. Two days later England and France declared war against Germany.