Heroes of the St. Louis

1 PM LOS ANGELES • 4 PM NEW YORK

xxxxx

Many people are familiar with the tragic story of the St. Louis ship, whose nearly 1000 Jewish passengers were turned back to Europe after they were refused entry by Cuba, Canada, and the United States.  But few are aware of the bravery of the ship’s captain, Gustav Schroeder, who was declared a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, and of Morris Troper and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Thanks to their strenuous efforts, the passengers were permitted to disembark in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, rather than returning to Nazi Germany. As a result, the passengers had a chance of surviving the ordeal, and many hundreds of them did. Meet Dr. Hans Fisher, who was one of these survivors, and Scott Miller, who is a leading world expert on this story.

xxxxx

THE SCHEDULE

⇒ November 4-7, watch the film When Canada Said No: The Abandoned Jews of the MS St. Louis on your home device. A link will be provided to all who register.

⇒ Sunday, November 6 at 4:00 p.m. US Eastern Time, tune into the program with our panel of guests.  A link will be provided to all who register.

xxxxx

MEET THE PANEL

xxxxx

Dr. Hans Fisher, left, is a survivor of the St. Louis ship. He is a Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Born in Breslau, Germany, he ended up in France after the ship returned to Europe. In 1940 he made it to Cuba where he stayed until 1941 when he was finally able to enter the United States. He earned a Ph.D in Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of Illinois. With his wife Ruth he translated Mendel Rosenbusch — Tales for Jewish Children originally written in German by Ilse Weber. Dr. Fisher has been a Visiting Scientist at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and has lectured at Harvard Medical School. The Fishers have three children and nine grandchildren.

Scott Miller, right, was a founding staff member at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he worked for 30 years. He is a co-author of Refuge Denied – The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust and other publications. In 2001, he was appointed the Director of the Museum’s Benjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Holocaust Survivors. In 2006, he became Director of Curatorial Affairs, overseeing the Museum’s archival, artifact, photo, film, music and oral history collections. Currently he is a consulting curator for the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust’s new core exhibition “The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do,” and is guest curator for the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education’s new exhibition “Human Rights After the Holocaust.”

Dr. Jud Newborn, left, who will host and moderate the program, served as the Founding Historian of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. He is the author of the acclaimed Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, and he has presented his multimedia lecture programs at the United Nations and worldwide. He was awarded his PhD with Distinction by the University of Chicago following three years of fieldwork in Europe as a Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson National Fellow, including hunting down former SS officers and working undercover for Poland’s “Solidarity” freedom movement. He was honored with the Anne Frank Center’s prestigious “Spirit of Anne Frank Award” and is the Emmy Award winning Producer of Special Celebrity Programs for Long Island, NY’s Cinema Arts Centre.

xxxxx

Registration for this program is closed.