THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, December 22, 1918 25 Plight of 'Boat People' Reminds of Jews' Fate on Doomed St. Louis oiR (Editor's note: Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, na- tional interreligious af- - fairs director for the American Jewish Com- mittee, and a member of the Citizens Commission on Indochinese Refugees organized by the Interna- tional Rescue Committee, recently returned from a 10-day mission to Malaysia and Thailand to help bring relief to the growing numbers of In- dochinese refugees.) RABBI MARC H. TANENBAUM ie* 1111* • • NEW YORK (JTA) — In the harbor of Djakarta, the frail battered Vietnamese' boat lay anchored listlessly, looking exhausted under the blistering noonday sun that scorched the Indone- sian archipelago. I walked out on the rot- ting wharf and then jumped onto the boat, no larger than an oversized rowboat. There were 15 people aboard, jammed together in swelter- ing closeness. The man who greeted me was Nguyen Than, the father of several of the eight children on the boat, and "the captain" of this decrepit vessel. He was a Vietnamese Catholic from Saigon, a teacher educated in a mission school and competent in English. •I introduced myself as one of the 14-member U.S. Citi- zens Commission for In- dochinese Refugees or- ganized by the Interna- tional Rescue Committee that was engaged in a fact- finding mission on the Israel Offers Asylum, Aid to Boat People GENEVA (JTA) — Israel said that it was prepared to offer its experience in the rescue and rehabilitation of refugees to assist iri inter- national efforts to aid the homeless refugees ("Boat People") from Vietnam. Joel Barromi, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations here, made that statement during the spe- cial conference on refugees in Southeast Asia convened by the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. Barromi noted that Israel is "a country built by refu- gees_ and we are certainly sensitive to the suffering of desperate human beings in search of a home." He re- called that Israel was in- strumental in rescuing a group of Vietnamese refu- gees at sea and "a small community of Vietnamese refugees was admitted to our country last year and was rapidly integrated in Israel's life." The envoy said that "Is- rael is ready to assist refu- gees who have reached countries of temporary asylum through the supply of medications. Our experi- ence in resettlement and productivization of refugees could also be instrumental for the development of self- supporting projects." But-he _ added that Israel would not be able to fund the projects. plight of Vietnamese boat people, Cambodian and other Indochinese refugeeS in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. - I asked Nguyen Than to tell me his "story." The Communist govern- ment in Hanoi had ordered him and his family to the rural countryside for "re- education" as members of the new collective society. Hanoi confiscated what lit- tle earthly goods they had, and worse still, they began to confiscate their freedom and dignity as human be- ings. Nguyen Than for example, was dismissed from his . teaching job and commanded to become a farmer in a rural collective. Through bribes and stealth, Nguyen Than crossed through forests, reached the shoreline, and in the middle of the night escaped on a decayed fish- ing boat that he and his two brothers had purchased at what for them were as- tronomical costs. They sailed for four weeks across the turbulent South China Sea. They were turned away by border patrols from the shores of Singapore and the Philip- pines. "By the third week," Nguyen Than told me, "we had no more food and water. We began to drink..the sea water and eat seaweed. Our children became deathly sick and feverish and we were certain that we would die." - And then this small man's face became fierce with anguish and he spoke these words which penetrated my heart. "Rabbi, you as a Jew will understand this better than most other people. As terrible as was the starvation, the physical pain in our bodies, the worst thing of all was the awareness that we were abandoned by the world, that our lives meant abso- lutely nothing to any- body, that human life has become worthless." found his face and voice dis- solving before me,_and I was overwhelmed by other im- ages. It was 1939, the boat churning in the turbulent ocean-was the "St Louis." The human cargo was 936 Jewish men, women and children, fleeing certain death in Nazi Germany. Like the Indochinese ref- ugees, they too had to buy their way, out of oppression, paying large sums for pas- sage on the "St. Louis," and buying "official landing cer- tificates" that was to guarantee them entry into Cuba. Some 730 of the Jewish refugees were also able to purchase American immigration quota num- bers, just in case the Cuban haven should fall through. On May 27, 1939, they docked' at Havana's port. They were told their "offi- cial landing certificates" were -invalid. Cuba's President Frederico Laredo Bru told them".they Could land if -they could produce one _million dollars within 24 hours. An impOssibility. Despair. Abandonment. Several men committed Suicide. Cuban gunboats forced the ship back into the At- lantic Ocean. Frantically, desperately, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee pleaded with South American countries to provide asylum. Cables to' Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina. "Regard these passengers as doomed if they are returned to Ger- man soil," said the cables. The reply came back — no room at the inn. Then incredibly, the United States govern- ment, under the "heroic" leadership of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull, re- jected "the refugees who possessed immigration numbers. Apparently, they did not want to meddle in the "internal affairs" of Nazi Germany. would later overrun Bel- gium, Holland and France, and all those who fled to those countries were mas- sacred in the Nazi genocide. That's why I joined novelist James Michener, civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, economist Leo Cherne, Ambassadors William Casey and Cecil Lyons and others, last Feb- ruary on that mission' of saving human lives in Southeast Asia. Our Citizens Commis- sion played a role in mov- ing the U.S. Congress to adopt legislation to admit 25,000 Vietnamese boat people and 15,000 Cam- bodians to this land of freedom. 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He looked intensely into my eyes and added, "I now understand what it meant to be a Jew in Nazi Ger- many in the 1930s, when all the world knew that your Jewish people were being destroyed and you were abandoned. "Twenty-three freighters passed us by. — we counted them — 23 large ships car- rying cargo, probably to Singapore. Most of them were great ships carrying Western or Japanese flags. We waved at them begging them to pick us up, at least to give us water and food. Nothing. A couple times some freighters slowed down and their crews came up on deck to watch us as if we were some entertain- ment. Some of the people even smiled or laughed at us. Our children began to scream in terror when they tried to sleep." As Nguyen Than spoke, I suddenly °CITIZEN . KnoA#n by the Company We • Manufacturers of Original & Unusual Creations Authorized Appraisers • Estate Liquidators • Jewelry Designers_ • 851-7333 31313 Northwestern • ir • r [ 1 11 4 Farmington Hills 1 Mon.-Fri. 'til 7:30 Sat. 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