Gilt-plated demitasse spoon embossed with the MS St Louis

Gilded demitasse spoon with an engraved ship image and enamel company logo used prewar on the MS St. Louis. This German ocean liner has become a symbol of the world's, and especially the United States, indifference to the fate of Jews in a Europe dominated by Nazi Germany. On May 13, 1939, the ship left Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba, with 937 passengers, nearly all Jews fleeing Germany. In Havana, only 28 people were allowed to disembark. For a week, the ship remained in port, amid desperate negotiations with Cuban and US authorities. On June 2, it was forced to leave. It drifted for 5 days near the Florida coast until all pleas to the US were rejected, due to strict quota limits and isolationist sentiment. It docked in Antwerp, Belgium, on June 17. Jewish aid organizations had negotiated with European governments to admit the passengers rather than return them to Germany. All those admitted to the United Kingdom, 288, survived; nearly half of those admitted to Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, 278, survived; the rest perished.