80 years ago, in 1939, Henry Gallant boarded a ship with 900 other Jewish refugees fleeing from Germany, only to be turned away in the U.S., Canada and Cuba and sent back to Europe.
Gallant told his story and of the fate of those aboard the MS St. Louis in the book “No Reply: A Jewish Child Aboard the MS St. Louis and the Ordeal That Followed,” co-authored by Atlanta writer Pamela Sampson.
As a journalist for the Associated Press, Sampson has covered stories around the world with her work appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is the featured speaker at this year’s Community-Wide Holocaust Remembrance Day Observance at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta.
“When the St. Louis was not allowed to land in Cuba, the captain turned toward the United States,” Sampson tells “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes. “Passengers sent telegrams to the White House and pleas to the state department. Pleas even went to [Eleanor] Roosevelt. There was no reply.”
The ship was eventually forced to turn around and made port in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Many of the passengers did not survive.
