Passport for Margarete Philippi, a Passenger on the St. Louis, "The Voyage of the Damned"

Authors

Object ID

2016.1.15

Object Name

Passport

Date

1939

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Cover: 'DEUTSCHES REICH, REISEPASS', 32 pages total, no markings on pages 10-32, photograph adhered to top left of page 2, St. Louis stamp on page 7.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

This passport was issued to Margarete Philippi, a passenger on the St. Louis - the so-called “Voyage of the Damned” - which set sail from Hamburg, Germany on May 13, 1939 for Havana, Cuba, with 937 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany seeking asylum after Kristallnacht. Margarete was accompanied by her husband and two sons. The Cuban government, however, refused entry to passengers, and the St. Louis was thus forced to return to Europe. Belgium eventually agreed to take 200 passengers, and the British, French and Dutch governments agreed to temporary asylum for some of the passengers. The Philippi family were among those passengers able to disembark in Holland. They were able to survive the Holocaust and eventually emigrated to America.

Sadly, as the Nazis overran the European countries, more than 250 of the passengers of the St. Louis were caught in the Nazi dragnet and perished. Gustav Schroeder, the non-Jewish German captain of the St. Louis, was posthumously honored by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations for his efforts at securing a safe haven for his Jewish passengers and his refusal to return the St. Louis to Germany.

Dimensions

6 1/2 x 4 1/4"

Keywords

Passport, Margarete Philippi, Ernst Philippi, SS St. Louis, Voyage of the Damned

Subcollection

St. Louis

Recommended Citation

"Passport for Margarete Philippi, a Passenger on the St. Louis, "The Voyage of the Damned"" (1939). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2016.1.15.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1275