MS St. Louis

 

Breakfast Menu – MS St. Louis

Date: August 21, 1938

Location: On board MS St. Louis, Hamburg-Amerika Line

Medium: Printed bilingual menu

Collection: Yavneh Klos Collection, Holocaust Archive 

This elegant breakfast menu from the MS St. Louis captures a moment of normalcy aboard the German liner just months before its fateful 1939 voyage, when Jewish refugees were refused immigration to Cuba and, subsequently, the United States and Canada. The luxurious offerings and bilingual design reflect the ship’s international service. In chilling contrast to the tragedy that followed, the menu is a silent witness to one of the Holocaust’s defining episodes of global indifference. Of 937 passengers, 254 would be murdered in the Holocaust.

A Taste of Hope and A Ship of Despair: The M.S. St. Louis Menu

By Aidan LeBouef.

The M.S. St. Louis was a luxurious German ocean liner with ornate dining rooms serving gourmet meals such as consommé, roast duck, and veal cutlets. In May 1939, the ship set sail from Hamburg with 937 Jewish refugees hoping to escape Nazi persecution by immigrating to Cuba. Upon arrival in Havana, only 28 passengers were allowed entry. The remaining refugees were denied and forced to return to Europe, where hundreds would later perish in the Holocaust.

Captain Gustav Schroder made heroic efforts to seek asylum in the U.S. and Canada after Cuba’s refusal but was turned away by both. Eventually, four countries—Great Britain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands—accepted the passengers. Those who went to Britain survived; many of those sent to the other countries were later captured and murdered in Nazi concentration camps.

The lavish menu from the voyage serves as a haunting symbol of the false sense of comfort and safety aboard the ship. Its elegant offerings stand in tragic contrast to the horrific fate that awaited so many of its passengers.

This menu provides cultural context for the era and underscores how quickly a world of privilege could dissolve under the weight of systemic hatred and genocide. It is a poignant reminder of the cost of closed borders and ignored pleas for refuge.