Feds apologize for Holocaust incident

CANADA REFUSED SHIP OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN 1939

Survivors and families of 900 German Jews whose pleas for asylum Canada ignored during the Holocaust received an official federal apology Wednesday, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed more federal help to combat anti-Semitic acts.

It was 79 years ago that the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King rejected an asylum request from an ocean liner carrying German Jews as it neared Halifax, forcing it back to Europe.

Most of the passengers scattered across the continent and more than 250 of them died in the Holocaust.

The decision to turn the country’s back on European Jews was “unacceptable then and it is unacceptable now,” Trudeau said in his speech on the week marking the 80th anniversary of what is known as “Kristallnacht” and the start of the Holocaust.

Trudeau said Holocaust deniers still exist and anti-Semitism remains prevalent in Canada — the latest numbers from Statistics Canada show Jews are the most frequent target of religiously motivated hate crimes — and North America, shadowed by the shooting deaths of 11 worshippers inside a Pittsburgh synagogue almost two weeks ago.

The ensuing days have seen countrywide vigils and, Trudeau said, calls for the government to do more through a federal program that funds security improvements at places at risk of hate-motivated crimes, such as synagogues.

Trudeau pledged to listen to the request, but didn’t provide further details.

Before the apology, Trudeau met with Ana Maria Gordon, a St. Louis passenger who lives in Canada, to talk about how the country could fight anti-Semitism.

“The whole premise of the St. Louis was the culmination of bigotry and hatred that is rearing its ugly head again and I think this is a very poignant part of this,” said Eva Wiener, 80.

The St. Louis departed Germany in May 1939 with more than 900 Jews aboard, hoping to find refuge from Adolf Hitler’s Nazis and the policies that stripped them of their rights and fuelled violence against them and their businesses.

They first went to Cuba and, when the passengers weren’t allowed to disembark there, the United States. The ship came within sight of Miami but the U.S. coast guard turned the ship away.

A group of Canadians tried to convince the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King to accept their asylum plea but federal officials rejected the request.