Letters to the Editor: One family’s journey to the U.S. shows the horrors the country cannot repeat

To the editor: Thank you, guest contributor Karen Musalo, for this article (“The U.S. failed refugees during the Holocaust. Trump’s Libya plan would too,” May 19). Yes, we have to be reminded that what President Trump is planning is a repeat of the horrors of the Nazi era and that there are legal procedures today to prevent this.

My late husband was on the St. Louis at the age of 7 with his 3-year-old brother, grandmother, mother and father. They were Jewish refugees from Berlin. The father’s store burned down during Kristallnacht. My mother-in-law, through friends, found out about getting into Cuba via this voyage when they were refused entrance into the U.S. at that time. Germany convinced Cuba to reject them, after which the ship turned back toward Europe and its concentration camps.

Fortunately, there were interventions plotted by the captain, the Jewish Refugee Organization and passengers on the trip to avoid going back. The Vendig family ended up in Belgium, then Vichy France and were finally rescued with help from Switzerland. The family finally got to the U.S. in 1946. They were lucky.

Stephanie Vendig, Los Angeles