Refugee Ship Navemar Sails from Lisbon En Route to Cuba and New York (JTA 8.18.41)
“The refugee steamer, Navemar, held here for eight days until the American consulate could reissue the expired visas of 250 of the refugees on board, sailed for Cuba and New York today with 1,180 refugees. Eighty of these boarded the Navemar at Lisbon, after its arrival, from Seville, fearing to remain here any longer. Just prior to its departure several expectant mothers were taken off and transferred to the Lisbon Jewish hospital.
Despite frantic efforts on the part of Jewish relief organizations here, little improvement was made in the miserable conditions aboard the Navemar, which were described by this correspondent last week. Sufficient water was taken on, but the already limited deck space was reduced further by the erection of a stall on the afterdeck for four huge oxen, who will furnish the meat supply, as the vessel has no refrigeration facilities.
While some of the conditions have been slightly alleviated the voyage is bound to be one of acute suffering for the majority of the passengers due to the overcrowding, the insufficient crew and the complete inadequacy of the ship’s sanitary, cooking, sleeping and health facilities. Many passengers were already suffering from the poor quality of the food and water, and all were affected by the lack of sufficient sanitary facilities.
Dr. Joseph Schwartz, European vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, who visited the Navemar just before she sailed, described the ship as a ‘floating concentration camp.’”
The Jewish Telegraph printed daily news reports of the atrocities committed against Jews not just around Europe but extending even to Africa. Click here to read the report of what was happening in towns and cities on one single day in 1941.
Anita’s visa to China
Family portrait: Grete, Anita, Wolf and Arthur…circa 1938
On board the freight ship the Navemar, where 1200 pack into a ship made for 15, the conditions in the holds at the ships’ bottom are so abominable that everyone makes camp on the deck. They squeeze into lifeboats…anywhere there is air. The crew stops working (most jump ship in Cuba). Six die on the journey (plus an ox); hundreds get dysentery.
**Among the boat’s passengers are Marc Chagall’s daughter and her husband, with a large case of Chagall’s work.
Numerous news articles report on the Navemar’s arrival in New York. Most get the numbers wrong at the time of reporting, but all get the gist… a horror show.
Shipping out, back to Germany this time. 1954
Wolf, circa 1936
“The friendship between the peoples strengthens and thrives” Quotation on the side of East German military train. Circa 1955
Our wealthier cousins Dr. Arthur Arndt with wife and daughter, and his mother Paula Kahnemann, perhaps with more foresight than us, board a luxury liner headed to Cuba, but find themselves on the ill-fated St. Louis and are eventually returned to Europe with disastrous consequences. for many on board.
Anita Schwersenz, date unknown
Wolf and his sister, Anita, circa 1933
Visa for our family’s escape to China 1940, aborted due to the encroaching war
Wolf (bottom) with his beloved Uncle Siegfried and unknown child (top) circa 1934
Anita’s German passport 1939, 18 years old
Grete’s (Wolf’s mother’s) temporary Reich passport issued in 1940 for emigration to China.
State of the art Soviet tank, circa 1954
More photos can be found inside the book AMERICAN WOLF. Check back on this page regularly as I add Wolf’s (Jack’s) personal collection of Cold War photos of Soviet secrets and clandestine operations in the former GDR…