Recommended by my librarian friend, Marlene, this was a new part of the World War II story that I had never heard. Based on true events, this Cuban writer wanted to expose the atrocities about the SS St Louis, a transatlantic luxury ship which carried Jewish families and other "undesirables" from Hamburg to Havana in 1939, before the war began.
Written from two perspectives, 12 year old Hannah's as a traveler in 1939 and 12 year old Anna's as a present day relative searching for information about her dead father's past; this book brings to light other facets of the familiar inequality and horrors of Adolf Hitler's hateful purposes. I never realized that Germany negotiated with other nations to deport their Jews, their Jehovah's Witnesses, and any others who did not align themselves with the new regime's ideals. It appears at the outset, that the Nazis may have been a bit more humane -- they offered concessions like safe passage, and carrying their clothing and personal items in "exchange" for their homes and contents, just to get them out of the country....then it progressed to pushing them into trucks and trains to destroy them in concentration camps. The fear and lies that the Jews were destroying Germany and other nations is such a hard concept for me to understand -- and how neighbors and friends could "buy" into these lies. The most scary to me is ... how far away am I from believing lies that the media tells about other "different" people and nations? Needing to lean into Jesus for direction and truth.
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