Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses the Holocaust, war, violent war crimes, and suicide.

Due to the antisemitic policies of the Nazi party and the rise of violence against Jewish people, many Jewish people in Nazi Germany attempted to emigrate between 1933 and 1939. A series of pogroms on November 9-10, 1938 (featured in the opening chapter of Refugee) called Kristallnacht formed part of the Nazis’ attempts to accelerate emigration and force Jewish people to leave Germany. Jewish emigration took many forms; over 100,000 Jewish people went to the United States, and the United Kingdom carried out a rescue effort of thousands of children called the Kindertransport. In May 1939, 937 Jewish passengers set sail from Hamburg on the MS St. Louis in an attempt to reach Havana in Cuba; the majority wanted to go on from there to the United States. It was commanded by Captain Gustav Schröder, a German who was not a refugee yet committed himself to attempting to find asylum for his passengers. Their voyage was widely publicized.

However, many nations, including the United States, were not willing to admit lots of Jewish refugees. There were several signs before the MS St. Louis arrived in Cuba that the voyagers would be refused asylum.