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Eleanor Roosevelt and the Jewish Refugees She Saved: The Story of the SS Quanza
(Times of Israel) Cathryn J. Prince - The documentary film "Nobody Wants Us" tells the story of the 317 people aboard the SS Quanza. On August 9, 1940, it sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, to New York carrying more than 300 passengers, most of whom were Jewish. 196 passengers disembarked. However, as per orders from the U.S. State Department, the remaining 121 people weren't allowed off. The ship sailed on to Veracruz, Mexico, where only 35 people were allowed off. Authorities forced the remaining 86, mostly Belgian Jews, to stay on board. The passengers were then told they'd be sailing back to Europe. On its return voyage the ship stopped for fuel in Hampton Roads, Virginia. American Jewish leaders rushed to press the refugees' case. It was brought to the attention of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who appealed to her husband. She insisted that the men, women and children aboard the Quanza were "future patriotic Americans" and not potential Nazi spies or Communist sympathizers. "When the SS St. Louis was sent back [in 1939], [Eleanor Roosevelt] vowed it will never happen again....She knew their lives were at stake," said Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, a three-volume biography. On September 11, the refugees were allowed entry. The president's intervention so outraged assistant secretary of state Breckinridge Long that he intensified efforts to halt immigration. By mid-1941 virtually no wartime refugees were allowed into the U.S.