Max Hirsch was one of the 937 passengers aboard the St. Louis, the cruise ship that left the port of Hamburg on May 13, 1939, with Cuba as its final destination. The vast majority of the passengers were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Across the Atlantic Ocean, they hoped to find a safe haven. However, both Cuba and the United States refused to accept the refugees, forcing the St. Louis to return to Europe.
In the meantime, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France had agreed to take in portions of the refugees. On June 17, the ship finally arrived in Antwerp. From there, the passengers dispersed among the four countries, three of which were occupied by the Germans in 1940. Ultimately, 254 refugees from the St. Louis were murdered in the Holocaust.
The fate of all passengers aboard has been researched as part of a project by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The passenger list is available here.
https://www.ushmm.org/online/st-louis/list.php
To escape Germany, around 930 Jews boarded the St. Louis in the port of Hamburg. They intended to disembark in Cuba. However, the Cuban authorities did not allow them to enter because most in their possession were (temporary) tourist visas. The United States also denied the passengers entry. The ship returned to Europe with nearly all its passengers still on board.
England, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands agreed to take in the passengers. How the Dutch newspaper Nieuw Israëlietisch Weekblad praised the government at the time for this decision can be read here.
The Netherlands took in 181 people (of.which 76 ultimately could not escape deportation), Belgium took 214, and France provided temporary refuge to 224. All of these individuals are linked to this story.
The Hirsch family arrived in the Netherlands with the St. Louis in June 1939.
Max Hirsch, son of Jakob Hirsch and Selma Jacob, married Margot Goldstein in 1933 in Breslau. In 1939, the family lived in Rotterdam at Wilhelminakade 76 before being registered in March 1940 at Oostelijke Handelskade 12 in Amsterdam (Lloyd Hotel). On July 17, 1940, the SS sent the family to the Westerbork refugee camp.
Max’s wife, Margot, and their 7-year-old son, Joachim, were murdered in Auschwitz on October 6, 1944. The Nazis murdered Max on April 3, 1945 in Mauthausen.
Sources
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/jewish-refugees-board-the-st-louis
https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/222735/max-hirsch
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