The Refugee Problem – Marcus Graham (1939)

_{Refugees aboard the M.S. St. Louis, arriving in Antwerp, Belgium after over a month at sea, during which they were denied entry to Cuba}

From ‘Man!’, August 1939, Los Angeles, edited by Marcus Graham

A cable coming from Holland tells of the plight of three steamers loaded with Jewish refugees from Germany. The steamers themselves are unsafe, for they were abandoned by their owners. Some of the people aboard these ships attempted to enter Holland, but they were refused admission. Then, the steamers tried to land in Palestine, but this, too, did not work out. So, this human cargo aboard three unsafe steamers floats along the waters. And as they float along, many of the distressed heartbroken refugees bring their plight to an end by a simple act — suicide.

This situation reminds us of a similar plight when 918 Jewish refugees were refused admission to Cuba in June of this year.

President Roosevelt has invited the governments represented at the recent Évian Conference to meet in the nation’s capital next autumn for the purpose of discussing once again the refugee problem. When one realizes what was accomplished or not accomplished at the Évian Conference, one will readily see what can be expected of the conference to take place in this country within the next few months. All the governments represented at the recent conference expressed sympathy and pity for Jewish and all other political refugees; not one of them, however, showed willingness and readiness to open its doors to the refugees.

Every government has, at some time or other, enacted laws which categorize sincere honest men and women as racial or political refugees. When representatives of these governments assemble under the false presumption of alleviating conditions which they themselves created through their laws, we can say that this is the peak of brazen and heartless boldness. Therefore, it is obvious that no sane person can or should hope for any aid or relief from such a set-up.

England, France and the United States, the true “democracies” of the world, are not to be excluded from this set-up. In fact, these very “democracies” are waging rabid yet unheralded campaigns to deport, expel or persecute, in some way or other, their political and radical refugees. How can one expect them, therefore, to show consideration for a [rail]carload of human beings who are drifting along the waters of the Atlantic — men, women and children who have been driven away from their homes and their families?

The crux of the whole situation should be clearly understood by this time. Hitler can immediately stop the persecution of the Jews in Germany if the “democracies” would bring pressure to bear on him. This, however, would require sincerity on the part of the “democratic” powers, an attribute which cannot be assigned to them. After all, neither fascism or nazism could have progressed and advanced so swiftly had it not been for the underhand approval and support given them by the powers of England, France, United States and Russia. Yes, even the “proletariat” dictatorship of Russia closes its doors to the harmless refugees or fully investigates each case while it carries on business transactions with Germany and Italy.

We feel that the refugee problem will be solved only when the social problem itself is solved. Until then there will always be the political and racial refugee who, like the Jew, has been the target for persecutions, tortures of all forms and utter unbearable unhappiness.

Hell Ships for Refugees – War Commentary (1942)

From ‘War Commentary: For Anarchism’, February 1942, London, UK

Governments offer hospitality to exiled Kings and Princes. Workers must show their solidarity towards refugees who have been able to escape from Europe only to find themselves denied shelter in so-called democratic countries.

The newspapers are filled with Nazi atrocities in occupied Europe. Journalists and editors shed tears over the martyrs of Hitler’s regime, and politicians swear that help and revenge will come. One would therefore think that when Vichy France allows Polish, Austrian, Italian, Russian and French refugees to leave the European inferno they would be received in the democratic countries with open arms and given all possible facilities to live and work. Nothing of the kind, however, happens; European refugees are not allowed even to land in the “democratic” states of South America. The following report taken from L’Adunata (the Italian anarchist weekly published in the United States) quotes Time (1.12.41) as showing how the inhuman methods of the Vichy Government have been more than equalled by those of the “friends of democracy” in South America.

“A year ago, from Poland, a group of Jewish refugees, coming Austria, Czech-Slovakia, France, Italy, Switzerland, and even Russia, had secured from the Vichy Government the permit to embark on the ship Alsina bound for Brazil. Each refugee had been accorded a special visa for that country. The Alsina was about to sail from Dakar, when an order came from Vichy preventing it from leaving the port. For four and half months the Alsina remained anchored at Dakar with her human cargo.

The ship was then transferred to Casablanca in French Morocco. The refugees were interned in a concentration camp where several died. Towards the end of the summer, 40 were allowed to embark on the Cabo de Buena Esperanza where the conditions were even worse than on the Alsina: the ship was overcrowded, filthy, infected, stinking; the food uneatable. In the sick berths old newspapers were used instead of sheets. During the journey two refugees died.

Arrived at Rio de Janeiro they were prevented from landing on the pretext that the visa obtained at Dakar was valid only for 90 days and this period had long since expired.

A few days afterwards the Cabo de Buena Esperanza resumed her journey towards Argentina. There the refugees obtained permission to stop for 90 days in the “Immigrants’ House” during which period they were ordered to secure a refuge. Before the end of the 90 days Ramon Castillo (President of Argentina) gave the order for them to leave. All of them had secured a permit to enter Paraguay but Castillo refused to give them a permit to cross the city in order to embark in the ship which would have brought them to Paraguay. They were instead crowded on the Cabo de Hornos where there were already 57 refugees from the original group of the Alsina.

Before the Cabo weighed anchor one of her passengers committed suicide. At Rio de Janeiro two refugees were able to land. Despair reigned on board. The Captain frankly told the journalists that his passengers would have committed suicide en masse rather than return to Europe. For the whole night the port police surrounded the boat in order to pick up those who would have committed suicide.

But the Brazilian authorities did not change their mind, and the tragic ship resumed her journey.

At the end of November the Dutch government. allowed the refugees of the Cabo de Hornos to land temporarily at Willemstadt, capital of the Island of Curacao in the East Indies. The number of the refugees who landed was 79.”

How long will the workers allow their governments to act in such an inhuman way towards refugees? After the Spanish war hundreds of thousands of refugees were left shelterless and hungry on French shores. They were treated like beasts and many were handed over to Franco. No movements of protest, no strikes took place in order to demonstrate the solidarity of the French and British workers towards the victims of Franco. Now the American workers show the same indifference towards those who, after tremendous hardships, have succeeded in leaving Europe.

We know that governments, even if they call themselves democratic are not concerned with the lives of persecuted men and women. The example quoted above is but one of many cases which have occurred in the last few years. We have seen letters from Spanish refugees in Mexico who found the conditions there so appalling that they wanted to return to Europe; we know cases of old Italian anti-fascists who preferred Mussolini’s jails to Daladier’s concentration camps. Democratic governments will allow hospitality and comfortable homes to the Queen Geraldines, Jugo-Slavian princelings and Dutch princesses but it is for the workers to see that their refugee brothers are not left to starve and die on murderous ships or in concentration camps.