MS St. Louis carried more than 900 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in 1939 but was denied landing in Cuba and the United States. The ship left Hamburg in May 1939 with 937 passengers seeking safety from Nazi persecution.
Most passengers held Cuban landing documents, but Cuban authorities invalidated or refused many of them after the ship arrived in Havana. The United States also declined to admit the refugees, and the ship returned to Europe in June. European organizations later helped place passengers in several countries, including Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The voyage is often remembered as a symbol of the dangers created by restrictive refugee policies. After Germany invaded western Europe, many passengers were again under Nazi rule; historians estimate that hundreds were later murdered in the Holocaust. The ship was not literally turned away only by the United States, since Cuba was its first refused destination.