Canadian Prime Minister Will Apologize For Turning Away Jewish Refugees In 1939
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau speaks at the United Nations. Le Premier ministre canadien Justin Trudeau parle aux Nations Unies. Image by EuropaNewswire/Gado/Getty Images
(JTA) — Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canadian government will formally apologize for turning away a ship full of Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi Germany.
Trudeau made the announcement Tuesday night at a Jewish fundraiser for the March of the Living in honor of its 30th anniversary. He did not say when the apology would take place.
“When Canada denied asylum to the 907 German Jews on board the MS St. Louis, we failed not only those passengers, but also their descendants and community,” Trudeau said in a statement.
“An apology in the House of Commons will not rewrite this shameful chapter of our history,” he said. “It will not bring back those who perished or repair the lives shattered by tragedy. But it is our collective responsibility to acknowledge this difficult truth, learn from this story, and continue to fight against antisemitism every day, as we give meaning to the solemn vow: ‘Never again.’ I look forward to offering this apology on the floor of the House.”
Cuba and the United States also denied entry to the refugees and, after they returned to Europe, about one-quarter of those on board died in the Holocaust.
Canada inaugurated its first national Holocaust memorial in September 2017, and Trudeau disappointed the Jewish community by failing to offer an apology at its unveiling.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
