On 13 May, 1939, approximately 6 months after the violence of Kristallnacht, a German ocean liner, the Saint Louis, left Hamburg with 937 passengers aboard. These passengers were mostly European Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. The plan was to disembark in Havana, Cuba and then make their way to the United States once their US visas had been granted. Unfortunately, the Cuban officials reneged on a prior agreement to allow these passengers to spend time in Cuba and refused to allow more than 28 passengers with specific paperwork to disembark. The others were denied entry by invalidating the Landing Certificates and Transit Visas which had been issued previously. As unfortunately and despite numerous appeals, the US also refused these shipborne refugees entry based on a limited quota system which was over-subscribed. The Saint Louis was forced to return to Belgium in early June 1939, where the passengers were divided into four groups and given entry visas to Belgium, Holland, France, and England. Of the 620 passengers who ended up in the three continental countries, 254 were killed during the Holocaust subsequent to Nazi invasion in May 1940.
Bak often represents the Saint Louis as a ship on land, unable to go anywhere. When you leave on a ship and return without disembarking, has your geographic status really changed? Certainly, for the Jews on this ship who subsequently lost their lives in the Holocaust this proved a futile journey with deadly consequences. Acknowledging this fate, Bak’s paintings also frequently include smoke from the ship’s funnels reminiscent of the crematoria chimneys.
This painting has a series of boats from broken, toy-shaped facsimiles to full ships, proceeding linearly from the foreground to the distant horizon. This progression might represent life’s progression from the childhood imagination of this boy seen with his parents (the Bak family) on a day in the park, to the harsh reality of the Saint Louis’ journey. As Bak shares with us his reconstructed memories as a young child, we tremble with fear and sadness knowing what will happen to his world in the years that follow. A day In the Park of Saint Louis for Bak is not the memory of a day in the park we wish for our children.
What is the responsibility of a sovereign nation to help refugees from an oppressive regime, even when it requires breaking or changing old rules? What kept the US and Cuba from admitting the passengers of the Saint Louis? Rules? Prejudice? Economics? Political pressure? In 2012 during a ceremony with 14 survivors present, the US Department of State formally apologized for its failure to assist those aboard the Saint Louis. We can only hope going forward that the nations of this world make understanding humanistic decisions and avoid the need for apologies.
Dr. Carl M. Herbert (Guest Writer)
BAK a Day, March 2, 2023
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A graveyard of ships that all carry memories of loss and disaster.
These are not cruise ships that have come to rest.
The St. Louis is a reminder of rejection and death.
A quartet of ships litter the landscape.
One belches the smoke of death.
The surrounding landscape is lush and inviting.
How do we remember what was and what is?
Death and destruction fall on the Ukraine and the world watches.
Why?
To what end?
Greed. Power.
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