Bill Hill

A tragic, horrifying, intense drama based on real life events, about 937 German Jewish refugees who left Nazi occupied Germany, to learn that nobody wanted them. This powerful film etches in rich detail, the story of the desperate lives of 937 Jewish Germans, offered a safe haven in Havana, Cuba. They depart Hamburg in high spirits looking forward to their new life. Some were concentration camp victims, some survivors of ‘the night of shattered crystal’, others just wanted to join relatives in Cuba. Some were wealthy enough to afford their voyage, but most left everything behind in the hope they could escape the Nazi terror. The passengers are unaware that the voyage is a sham, simply one of Josef Goebbels’ propaganda exercises. The ship will not be able to dock in Havana, and when the rest of the world turns the ship away, the Jews will have to return to Germany. On June 1, 1939, just as hope had all but vanished, the passengers receive word that Belgium, Holland, France and Britain agree to accept the passengers. Come what may, the passengers resolve not to return to Hamburg, or the camps.