Author tells tale of ill-fated MS St. Louis, 'I still have nightmares': Sara Loewenthal

Posted Feb 2, 2012 By Jennifer McIntosh

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EMC news - The first Spanish word Herbert Karliner learned was mañana. The word was one he heard often from the Cuban police officers aboard the MS. St. Louis while he waited to see if he and 936 other Jews fleeing Nazi Germany would be allowed to seek refuge on the Caribbean island.

Karliner was 12 years old when he boarded the MS St. Louis in Hamburg, Germany, and travelled to Cuba, the U.S. and Canada before turning back and heading to Europe because the three countries refused to take in the refugees.

Karliner told his story at the launch of the MS St. Louis commemorative project - an initiative between the Jewish Youth Library of Ottawa and the Canadian Ministry of Immigration. The project culminated in a mural and a childrens book entitled So Near, Yet so Far: Klara's Voyage on the MS St. Louis. The book was launched at Ben Franklin Place on Jan. 25.

The book was written by Sara Loewenthal, based on interviews with survivors.

"I really felt like I was living the story of Klara," she said. "I still have nightmares."

The MS St. Louis was a luxury ocean liner that left Germany on May 13, 1939, with 937 German Jews on board. The plan was to go to Cuba and live there as refugees, but the passengers were refused entry. Ultimately the ship had to turn back to Europe with Britain, Belgium, France and Holland agreeing to take in the refugees. Belgium, France and Holland were occupied a year later - nearly a third of the original passengers were killed in the Holocaust.

'GRIM INCIDENT'

Rick Dykstra, parliamentary secretary to the minister of Citizenship and Immigration, called the refusal of the ship at the port in Halifax, a "a grim incident in Canada's not-too-distant past."

The book and a mural entitled Turbulent Seas by Jewish artist Michoel Muchnik was made possible by a $100,000 grant from the ministry.

At the unveiling, Dykstra said Canadians should commit to remembering the event and prevent it from happening again.

The grant mandate is that 1,000 copies of the book will be distributed for free to local libraries and schools.

Devora Caytak, co-founder of the Jewish Youth Library on Switzer Avenue, said the project is the beginning of future collaboration among Jewish communities across the country.

Loewenthal read the book aloud at the launch and was accompanied by the book's illustrator Nicholas Jackson, who talked about how he depicted the story.

"It was a challenge to tell the story to children and keep the lessons without sugar coating it," he said. "But we didn't want to scare the children either."

Karliner, who travelled to Ottawa from Miami for the launch, said the reason he relives the voyage and his family's trials during the ensuing Holocaust is because the lessons need to be learned.

After Kristallnacht, a series of co-ordinated attacks against Jews throughout Germany and parts of Austria, his father's grocery store the local synagogue were burned down, Karliner said the family had no choice but to leave.

"I couldn't go to school anymore, when we went to play soccer I was the ball," he said. "We sold everything to get on that ship."

After the boat was refused entry overseas, Karliner was taken to a small village in France, a year later it was occupied and his family was in concentration camps, and he never saw them again.

Since moving to Miami as a young adult, Karliner said he has travelled all over North America talking to people about the Holocaust.

"It is so important to remember," he said.




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