Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

In 1939, the German ocean liner MS St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish passengers who were fleeing from Germany for their lives, docked at the Canadian harbour with the expectation of Canadian refuge. However, then PM William King turned the entire ship away, single-handedly becoming responsible for 254 lives lost during the Holocaust.  Recollecting this scenario, current PM Justin Trudeau, during the 30th anniversary of the March of the Living in Toronto, promised to deliver an official apology for the fate of MS St. Louis in the House of Commons.

In his official statement, Trudeau elaborated on the fact that in 1939, when Canada turned the 907 Jews away, they failed those passengers, as well as the entire Jewish community. Although he hasn’t specified the exact date, the Prime Minister promised to deliver an apology for this inhuman act. Justin Trudeau stated that even though he is aware that apologizing 79 years down the line will not bring back any lost lives, it will help to acknowledge the results of this decision, thereby helping everyone learn from the past.

Justin Trudeau is well aware of the Canadian anti-Semitic policies during the early 1900s, which indirectly resulted in many deaths during that era. Owing to what Trudeau has described as Canada’s discriminatory “none is too many” immigration policy, between 1933 to 1945, only 5000 Jewish refugees had been given asylum in the country. Hence, after the unnerving refusal of 1939, the MS St. Louis staggered around the coastal countries of Europe. About 400 of the passengers of the ships were taken in by the UK, Netherlands, France, and Belgium. The rest 500, however, had to return back to Germany, where 254 of them ended up in the fated concentration and internment camps.

Even though no number of apologies can change those deaths and decisions, a formal apology will be like a personal statement to all the Holocaust survivors and their families who reside in Canada now.

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