Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

firebat45 t1_j1qcgbo wrote

424

johnn48 t1_j1qn1w4 wrote

Countries are notoriously reticent about refugees. The US viewed refugees as security risk’s and turned away Jewish refugees routinely. The most infamous was the German Liner St Louis with 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. Ultimately they were refused asylum in America and Canada and returned to Europe where Britain, France, and other countries gave them asylum. Unfortunately 254 died in the Holocaust.

239

sonia72quebec t1_j1r1ylf wrote

What happened to them is a tragedy. As a Canadian I'm truly ashamed.

56

UsmcFatManBear t1_j1rpf6z wrote

Just wait till you find out what Canada did to native Americans

26

sonia72quebec t1_j1rtxlq wrote

That’s why religion shouldn’t be mixing with politics.

The Catholic Church dominated part of the Country and they did horrors to “save” people. They also did terrible things to French Canadian orphans. Putting some children with for exemple, only a stutter into Asylums, not giving them any education or good care, just because the Government was given them more money for taking care of them.

The others were on the same type of orphanage as the natives. Physical abuse, starvation, sexual abuse… all in the name of God.

My Uncle was in one of these orphanage and they were practically starved. And lots of them were sexually abused by these monsters. He said to me that he was lucky to be an ugly child. (He got 20K as an apology)

When I see what the religious right is doing in the US about abortion, I’m terrified to what will became of all those unwanted children. (Because we all know that rich people will continue to have abortions)

They won’t all get adopted that’s for sure. Will we see those huge Orphanage come back?

21

DefenestrationPraha t1_j1qdrnv wrote

It was even worse than that. Some of the Jews settled in Germany were citizens of other countries (Poland, Lithuania etc.), which were nevertheless anti-Semitic enough to either deny them passports outright or at least tarry when issuing them. So even if you wanted to move out of Germany, you would lack the necessary papers to cross the border.

During the biggest crisis of this type, Poland refused to accept many thousands of its own citizens expelled by Germany, who were forced to stay in no-man's land at the border for months.

79

sonia72quebec t1_j1r1mnu wrote

A lot of Country didn't want Jewish people. Even the US had quotas. " In 1938, more than 300,000 Germans —mostly Jewish refugees —had applied for U.S. visas (entry permits). A little over 20,000 applications were approved." Source

32

Johannes_P t1_j1s28vc wrote

There was an entire conference where no one accepted to take Jewish refugees on 1938.

11

empfindsamkeit t1_j1snv6k wrote

Waiting until 1938 to leave was probably a lot more expensive than leaving in, say, 1933. It didn't cost $300K to travel abroad back then. It probably involved smuggling and/or bribery, and may have been determined based on his ability to pay. It says in the article friends were urging him to leave earlier and he didn't heed them until it was almost too late.

5

Careful_Yannu t1_j2379tj wrote

IIRC Germany tried taxing (well, seizing the property of) fleeing rich Jews to fund the deportation of poorer Jews. This isn't an attempt at whitewashing Nazi Germany, it was the most practical solution at the time for getting rid of the most Jews. However so few countries accepted them, or rather many countries that did were soon to be invaded and annexed anyway, that..."evacuation" to the East was the second solution, followed by...well. We all know what they picked next...

1