Twitter account memorializes Holocaust victims turned away from America in 1939

The powerful Twitter account St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) spent Holocaust Remembrance Day documenting the names and images of passengers on the German transatlantic liner St. Louis. The ship sailed from Germany in 1939 with 937 passengers, most of whom were Jews fleeing the Third Reich. The St. Louis headed to Cuba where many of its passengers hoped to disembark before heading to the United States. Instead Cuba admitted only 28 of the passengers. Although the U.S. media covered the event with sympathy towards the refugees, the remaining passengers were not allowed entry into the country, despite sailing so close to Miami as to see the lights of the city. Instead the St. Louis returned to Europe, where its passengers tried to find refuge in other European countries. While almost all of those who settled in England survived the war, 532 of the passengers who settled in continental Europe were trapped when Germany conquered Western Europe. 254 of them died in the Holocaust.

Created by Rabbi Charlie Schwartz and educator Russel Neiss, the @Stl_Manifest account documents the names and photos (when possible) of those St. Louis passengers later killed in the Holocaust. The account draws explicit parallels to todays refugee crisis and its bio features the hashtag #RefugeesWelcome. You can read more about the St. Louis and its passengers on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.