37 Days at Sea: Aboard the M.S. St. Louis, 1939 by Barbara Krasner

This is the second book by Barbara Krasner that I have read about the 938 European Jews who set sail in 1939 aboard the M.S. St. Louis hoping to escape the Nazis and find safety in Cuba. The first book was called Liesel's Ocean Voyage. It is a fictionalized story based on the real experiences of Liesel Joseph Loeb (1928-2013) and I highly recommend it, and in fact, I would read it in tandem with 37 Days at Sea to get a broader picture of a voyage that began with so much hope ended in such disappointment. 

Here, Krasner introduces readers to Ruthie Arons, 12, from Breslau, Germany. The decision to leave and eventually settle in America came shortly after Kristallnacht, when their beautiful home was ransacked by Nazis who broke into Jewish homes and businesses all over Germany, stealing, breaking and destroying everything in their path. 

Now, onboard the M.S. St. Louis, missing the family they had to leave behind, Ruthie, a somewhat mischievous girl thinks that  "Adventure/ across the Atlantic Ocean beckons." And indeed it does, when she quickly makes friends with Wolfie, a twelve-year-old Jewish boy traveling with his mother and whose father is already living in Havana.

Secure in the knowledge that they have the necessary papers to enter Cuba, people on the ship enjoy a wonderful voyage of good food, entertainment, and friendliness, including Captain Schroeder. And although the crew wear their NSDAP pins, there is a problem with only one, Kurt Steinfelder. Ruthie's mother suffers from seasickness and her father, an attorney, is busy with some other business, so that leaves her plenty of time to hang out with Wolfie, exploring the ship and getting into mischief: "Grown-up, watch out. We/ are a band of trouble,/ and by we, I mean/ Wolfie and me." (pg 24)

There is a, however, a very concrete reminder of what was left behind in Germany, when a group of men with shaved heads come on board and Ruthie's father must explain to her about concentration camps and the arrest of so many Jewish men on Kristallnacht, including him. Some were released, others sent to camps, released with the promise never to return.

After two weeks at sea, on the fifteenth day, the M.S. St. Louis enters Havana, Cuba but it doesn't take long to realize that there is more trouble ahead for these Jewish refugees. No one is allowed to disembark and enter Cuba, including Wolfie and his mother, even though his father is already there. Negotiations take place, the United States refuses to help and eventually the ship is forced to return to Europe. Needless to say, the trip back is nothing like the trip to Cuba.

37 Days at Sea is written in free verse from Ruthie's first person point of view, which gives it an interesting perspective. Ruthie may have experienced some of the cruelty of the Nazis in Breslau, but she was younger and her parents seem to have been able to shield her from some of the worst events. The trip to Cuba and the return to Europe makes this a kind of end of innocence story, but the beginning of understanding the seriousness of what was happening to the Jews in Europe for Ruthie (and hopefully today's reader).    

Krasner used a few different poetic forms, and although the free verse is sometimes a little off, it is still an important book for young readers, especially in the lower middle grades. She really knows how to build the excitement and expectation of landing in Cuba and being free to come and go as they please as the ship travels to its destination, and the disappointment and dejection the passengers feel when they are forced to go back. The first half of the books is devoted to the trip to Cuba, and the second half covers the trip back, which I think is an important part of the story to include. 

Back matter includes an Author's Note, a Timeline of Events, suggestions for Further Information including Films, Oral Testimonies, and Books.

This book was a digital version purchased for my personal library.

Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar

It's 1938 and Papa has been in Cuba for three years, working to save money to bring the rest of his family there from Poland and away from the  increasing Nazi threat to Jews. Normally, it would be the eldest son, Moshe, who would be the first child to join his father, but 11-going-on-12-year-old Esther Abraham, the eldest daughter, makes such a convincing case to Papa, that she is chosen to join him, much to her mother's consternation. 

But, on her own, Esther travels through Poland, Nazi Germany, and Holland, boards a ship to cross the Atlantic, only to learn that the first stop is Mexico, not Cuba and that she will be the only passenger when they leave port. But Esther, being a naturally friendly girl, has made friends with the animals on board, spending time with them until they reach Havana, Cuba and the next delay.

In the end, Papa is there and, before they head to the town where he lives, he has to conduct some business, introducing Esther to Zvi Mandelbaum. It turns out Papa's job in Cuba is as a itinerant peddler, not the shopkeeper his family thought he was, and he gets his wares from Mandelbaum, who immediately gives Esther a pair of sandals so she can take off her hot woolen stockings. 

From the moment Esther began her trip, she decided to write down "every interesting thing that happens" in letters for her younger sister Malka. That way when the rest of the family are finally in Cuba, they can read the letters and it will be as if they had been together the whole time. (pg 2) The result is detailed descriptions of the people Esther meets, the places she goes, and her daily life with Papa.

Esther is friendly, outgoing, and smart, picking up Spanish quickly. And she is also quite enterprising, helping her father sell the items he is given by Mandelbaum. Despite being the only Jews in the town of Matanzas, almost everyone friendly and giving, accepting her and her father. But after Esther sews herself a new dress to wear in the hot Cuban weather, she soon begins a successful trade as a dressmaker to help make money to bring her family to Cuba. 

Their lives in Cuba are basically pleasant and enjoyable, filled with new friends of diverse backgrounds, including Manuela and her Afro Cuban grandmother, and the Changs from China, as well as the local doctor and his wife, Señora Graciela. It is she who gives Esther a sewing machine that helps her begin her dressmaking business. But Cuba are not without its Nazi sympathizers, including the doctor's brother, Señor Eduardo. He wants to start a Nazi party in Cuba with an anti-immigrant agenda to get rid of the Jews there.

As the situation in Europe becomes more perilous for the Jews there, it becomes more and more imperative to get the money to bring the whole Abraham family to Cuba. 

Esther's letters to Malka are quite detailed. And though the story may not be the kind of exciting tale we are accustomed to from this period in history, it is still a wonderful window into a life we don't often read about. Small wonder it reads so authentically. Behar based this novel on her grandmother's experience of traveling to Cuba in 1927 to join her father. Like Esther, her family had lived in Govorvo, Poland. And like Esther, one beloved family member didn't make to Cuba. 

I enjoyed reading Letters from Cuba a lot. Sometimes I just don't want a lot of action and an epistolary novel like this is just the ticket for an evening of reading during COVID-19 time. Esther is a great character - a bold feminist yet respectful of her elders, especially Papa, and her religious traditions. I can't even imagine letting an 11-year-old girl travel from Poland to Cuba, part of the way in Nazi territory, all by herself. She is a character with perseverance, fortitude, and a maturity beyond her age, as well as a pretty good business woman.

Behar includes an extensive and very interesting Note from the Author about her family and how they settled in Cuba, and her research for writing this book. There is also a list of Resources for further reading.

An Educator's Guide is available to download courtesy of the publisher Nancy Paulsen Books HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 10+

This book was an EARC gratefully received from Nancy Paulsen Books through NetGalley

Refugee by Alan Gratz

In Refugee, Alan Gratz has seamlessly woven together the stories of three refugee children and their families from different time periods and different places in the world and brought their harrowing experiences together as each flees their homeland in the hope of finding safety and freedom elsewhere.

On Kristallnacht in 1938 Berlin, Nazis enter and destroy contents of the home of the Landau family, terrorizing Josef, 12, his younger sister Ruth, his mother, and arresting his father, Arron. When his father finally returns home, he is a broken man after spending time in Dachau. Luckily, the Landau family has secured tickets and the needed visas to emigrate to Cuba. 

On board the MS St. Louis, a luxury passenger ocean liner, the Jews fleeing Nazi Germany are treated well all the way across the Atlantic, but for Josef, the trip also brings stress. His father refuses to leave their cabin, insisting it is all a Nazi trick to send them to a concentration camp. When Josef turns 13 on the trip, he is able to make his Bar Mitzvah with the help of other passengers and ship’s crew. It would have been wonderful for Josef, if only his father could be at his side. 

When the ship reaches Cuba, it is held offshore for what feels like endless days. Then comes the news that Cuba has cancelled all visas and ordered the St. Louis to leave Cuban waters. The ship sails to the US, where the passengers are also refused entry. But if no country will take this ship full of Jewish refugees, the only recourse is to return to Germany and certain death.

For Isabel, 11, living in Fidel Castro’s communist Cuba, immigrating to the United States, el norte, is only an impossible dream. That is, until 1994, when Castro announces that anyone who wishes to leave Cuba would not be stopped. Then, Isabel discovers that her best friend Iván’s father has been secretly building a boat to travel the 90 miles to the Florida coast with his family.

Isabel is determined to go with them when her Papi is threatened with imprisonment by the Cuban police. Discovering that there is no gasoline for the escape boat, Isabel sells her beloved trumpet for what they need. In the middle of the night, two families, 9 people in all, pile into the boat, including Isabel’s pregnant mother, and take off for el norte, and hopefully leaving their homes in Havana behind. 

Fleeing the the US isn’t as easy a just enough gasoline, there is also the “wet foot, dry foot” policy. If you make it to the beach, you can stay, but if they catch you still in water, you are sent back to Cuba. Everything goes well for a short time, but then the trip begins to run into all kinds of problems and el norte seems even further away than before. Will they all make it before their boat sinks or the US Coast Guard finds them?

For Mahmoud Bishara,12, life in Aleppo, Syria in 2015 means trying to make himself invisible and making sure his younger brother Waleed is safe. But when the building the Bishara’s live in is hit and destroyed by a missile attack, the family knows it is time to leave Syria with its violent civil war behind and try to find refuge in Germany. 

Starting out in a Mercedes, and heading to Turkey, the Bishara’s have food, money and cell phones, but are soon caught in the cross hairs of fighting between Sunni and Shia Muslims once again, losing most of what they are carrying, including the car. Luckily, they manage to keep a cell phone. They finally make it to the border town of Kilis, Turkey by walking, and where Mahmoud’s father finds a ride to Izmir, Turkey and the possibility of a ferry to Greece. But they also discover that there are people along the way who will do anything to take advantage of the plight of desperate Syrian refugees in a country where they are not welcomed.

After waiting days for a ferry to arrive, they finally board an overly crowded, not very sea worthy  boat. But when a storm hits, they are thrown overboard into an angry sea, where Mahmoud must make a heartrending decision in order to try to save at least one person in his family.

Each of these stories are heartbreaking and harrowing to read and really bring home what it is like to be a refugee in a world that just doesn’t want you. Gratz draws out the tension by telling the stories of Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud in alternating chapters, each chapter ending in a bit of a cliff hanger, not for the sake of drama, but to emphasize the level and frequency of danger that is faced by refugees.

And though their stories are separated by time and place, Gratz manages to highlight the universal similarities refugees faced in the 20th and 21st centuries. Though each protagonist stands on the cusp of adulthood, they all must take responsibility and make hard decisions that impact their families and the outcome of their flight when the adults around them are incapable of doing it. 

Readers can trace the route Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud traveled to their final destinations with the maps found at the back of the book (and I continuously referred to them while reading), and please read the Author’s Note for more information about these young heroes.

Facing hardship, trauma, loss, hunger, and invisibility, the stories of Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud form a poignant look at life on the run. But ultimately, each one gives us reason to hope. 

A useful discussion guide from the publisher can be found HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 10+

This book was an ARC sent to me by the publisher, Scholastic Press

Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Margarita Engle

This free verse novel, written from a first person perspective by three separate and distinct voices, introduces the reader to Daniel, a 13 year old German Jewish refugee who held the hand of his grandfather as he died on Kristalnacht; Paloma, the 12 year old daughter of a corrupt Cuban official who determines, for a high price, who gets a visa to enter Cuba.  Paloma also works at a shelter to help the refugees adjust to their new surroundings; and David, an elderly Russian Jew who fled his country in the 1920s because of pogroms and with whom Daniel is able to communicate in Yiddish.

The novel begins in June 1939 and, as each of these three characters tell their story, the reader also learns that Daniel's parents are musicians who decided to save Daniel because they could only scrape together enough money to pay for one ticket on a ship and send him away from the Nazis.  It was his and their hope that they would be reunited in New York someday.  

Paloma, ashamed of her father's abuse of power and the high price he charges desperate people for a visa, works with the American Quakers in Cuba to help people find shelter and provide them with food and clothing more suitable to a warm climate.

David, who hands out ice cream and food to the refugees with Paloma, befriends Daniel and convinces him to take off the heavy winter coat he brought from home, and metaphorically shedding his old life.  Over time, Daniel, David and Paloma become friends and David helps Daniel begin to move on with his life, though never forgetting his parents.  

In December 1941, when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, paranoia that Germany has sent spies to Cuba increases and the Cuban government orders all non-Jewish Germans to be arrested.  The three friends watch husbands and wives torn from each other because one spouse is Jewish and the other is Christan, and think of the oldest couple in the shelter.  Having crossed Europe together, hiding from Nazis any way they could, Miriam, a Jew, and Marcos, a Christian, are about to be separated in what should have been their place of safety.  Are Paloma, Daniel and David willing to risk everything to help this elderly couple hide from the police?  Does the fear of German spies mean that ships from Germany will now be turned away from Cuba?

Despite being written in free verse, each one of three characters begins to really come to life as they tell their thoughts and secrets and share the different obstacles they must face and overcome, but each is also willing to do what they can to help others in the difficult times and circumstances they find themselves in.    

This is the fourth book I've read about the experience of Jews fleeing Europe and Hitler's cruelty, seeking refuge in Cuba.  This book covers a three year period, from June 1939 to April 1942.  Read carefully, because Engle packs a lot of information about life in Cuba during that time as the characters speak.  There is both corruption and kindness to be found, as well as the anti-Semitic propaganda campaign launched by Germany in Cuba; the eventual turning away of other ships and forcing them to return to Germany and death, and the rounding up of Christians married to Jews and believed to be spies.  Engle includes that and more in her spare, yet graceful poetic style.

There are a lot of excellent stories written about the experience of people during the Holocaust, but not many about the experience of Jews and Cuba.  Books like Tropical Secrets give us another side of what life was like for Jews living under Hitler and their desperate attempts to escape - sometimes successfully, sometimes not.  Ships like Daniels continued to be turned away from the US and Canada, and even though Cuba eventually did the same, it did provide a relatively safe haven for 65,000 refugees.

Be sure to read the Author's Note at the end of the book to learn more about Cuba in WWII.

Tropical Secrets is a very moving novel about family, friendship, tolerance, love, and survival.

A reading guide can be downloaded HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 11+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Passing through Havana: A Novel of a Wartime Girlhood in the Caribbean by Felicia Rosshandler

It is December 1939.  In a lavish apartment in Antwerp, Belgium,  9-year-old Claudia Rossin, along with her parents, relatives and others, are listening to a Polish refugee taking about the Nazi invasion of Poland and the horrors that they brought with them.  But Claudia doesn't fully understand the implications of Anton's story.  She is far too wrapped up in her unhappiness at being under the thumb of a detested French governess whose job it was to turn a very head-strong girl into a perfect social being.

And then in May 1940, despite Belgium's declarations of neutrality, the Nazis march in and before Claudia knows it, they are living under German occupation.  But Claudia's parents, Max, an insecure Polish businessman despite his success in business. and Suze, a socialite who knows and likes to entertain all the right people in her salons, remind blind to what is happening, despite being Jewish.

In October, racial standards and registration of all Jewish are imposed.  Suze goes to the Kommandant and manages to charm an extra two months out of him before they must register - two months to plot the family's escape.  And she does - charming the Salvadorian consul into signing questionable visas.

Armed with these questionable visas to El Salvador, the family travels in a first-class compartment of the Brussels-Paris Express.  But Paris that winter isn't wonderful and then, in June 1940, the Nazis arrive.  The family is ordered to leave France within 24 hours.  They head for Spain and board a boat heading to Havana, Cuba.  They have escaped in the nick of time - soon roundup and deportations of Jews would start in Belgium along with the rest of the Europe's Nazi occupied countries.

For Claudia, the two best things about Cuba are the warmth and no more French governess.  She is enrolled in a private Catholic school and, because of her blond hair and fair skin, accepted and welcomed by the other girls, never letting on that she is Jewish.

Away from the stresses of the war and the Nazis, life becomes more routine - school, parties, friends, fighting with her mother, trying to become a grown-up.  And after a few years, Claudia meets and finds herself attracted to a boy at a party.  Dieter Müller was born in Havana to German parents.  Claudia lets him believe she is also an Aryan German, born in Berlin: We are the perfect pair," he whispers to her.  Dieter is awed by the Hitler Youth, and Claudia tells him she used to dream about being picked to present flowers to the Führer.

On the surface, it does appear that Claudia and Dieter are the perfect pair, or are they?

Passing through Havana is an interesting look at the Jews who managed to escape to Cuba.  The novel is based on the author's real experiences as a young girl.  Claudia is a bit of a spoiled brat and Rosshandler's depiction of her conflicts with her mother and how they impact some of her youthful, rather defiant decisions are spot on.  But this is a coming of age novel, so it is a bit of a roller coaster ride towards maturity, as Claudia discovers who she is and begins to see reality without the romantically tinged rose-colored glasses of her pre-adolesence.

I really enjpyed reading about Cuba in the early 1940s and the experience of the Jewish community that formed among the refugees.  I don't know of many books about European Jews who fled to Cuba.  In 1939, only those with landing permits were allowed to disenbark in Cuba when the St. Louis arrived there.  The Rossins disembarked with the landing passes for El Salvador, with the intention of remaining in Cuba only until they could get to the United States - which finally happened after the war, hence the somewhat ironic title Passing through Havana.  Rosshandler also paints a very interesting picture of pre-Castro Havana among the upper class in her book.  Most of us don't remember that Cuba once had a striated society and there were some very wealthy, educated people as well as very poor.

Originally published in 1984, Passing through Havana is now being reissued as a Kindle book.

Passing through Havana should probably be read by more mature teens due to some sexual content.

This book is recommended for readers age 15+
This book was sent to me by the author

And in the spirit of Valentine's Day:
This book is autobiographical fiction - based on real life experiences.  Recently The Guardian ran an article about Felicia and a real teenage sweetheart - read how their story worked out over the years here

Teenage sweethearts Felicia and Edmundo Desnoes age 16
in Havana, Cuba

This is book 5 of my 2013 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry

The Other Half of Life by Kim Ablon Whitney

In 1939, 930 German Jews set sail across the Atlantic Ocean on the MS St. Louis in the hope of escaping Nazi persecution in Germany and of finding political asylum in Cuba.  The trip was costly to begin with, and then Cuba demanded $500 additional dollars that the refugees couldn't afford to pay.  The ship proceeded to the United States and Canada, but both countries refused to grant asylum to the Jewish refugees.  The captain of the St. Louis had taken it upon himself the make sure the passengers were treated with dignity while crossing the Atlantic, and when they were refused admittance into these three countries, he again took on the responsibility of finding asylum for all his passengers, refusing to return to Germany until this was done.

The Other Half of Life is a fictionalized version of this event.

Thomas Werkmann, 15, is traveling alone on the MS St. Francis from Germany to Cuba because his Jewish father is in Dachau and his Christian mother could only afford to buy one tourist-class passage and landing permit.  On his first day at sea, Thomas meets Professor Affeldt, his wife and two daughters Priska, 14, and Marieanne, 10.  They are traveling first class and pass Thomas off as their cousin so that he can join them for meals.  It doesn't take long for Thomas and Priska to become friends and to meet other kids their age on board ship.

Priska and Thomas couldn't be more different.  Throughout the voyage, Thomas is skeptical about whether or not they will be admitted into Cuba, while Priska firmly believes that they are finally "saved" from Hitler's persecution of Jews.  Yet despite her infectious optimism and faith, Thomas continues to say he will not believe they are "saved" until they are safely in Cuba, making him metaphorically a Doubting Thomas figure.  And, of course, we know from reality that they never are allowed to enter Cuba, but that isn't the end of the story for Thomas.  Whitney's takes us much further than the Cuban port in her version of the story.

I found this to be a fascinating fictionalized version of the real events in this coming of age novel.  In the space of a two week voyage, Thomas learns much about people, life and himself, much of this occurring in his games of chess with various opponents.  Chess is a game his father had taught him and Thomas was quite good at it.  He even took a pawn from his father's chess set and carried it around in his pocket.  Though I don't play chess, I could still follow the games progress and how each one contributed to Thomas's growth.  Slowly, he learns that sometimes people are not who they appear to be, including himself and even Priska, with whom he falls in love with Priska.

The Other Side of Life is an energetic novel, well-written with well-developed characters.  At times I found myself annoyed with Thomas's negativity and with Priska's relentless positivity (is that even a word?) but I also liked the contrast.  I also know I am a realist and in Thomas's situation, I would feel just like he does.  Whitney brings in all kinds of questions regarding identity.  Thomas is a Mischling but raised in a secular home.  It is on the MS St. Francis, fleeing a country that sees him only as Jewish, that he begins to learn and appreciate more and more about Judaism, his father's religion, and coming to terms with the fact that it is a part of his identity, too.

This is a very interesting historical fiction novel and between Whitney's imagination and research she has produced a valuable novel about a little known part of Holocaust history.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was bought for my personal library.

Be sure to visit Kim Ablon Whitney's website to read about her research and an interview with a survivor of the real ship, the MS St. Louis, upon which this novel was based.

There is also a helpful teacher's guide there, in both html and pdf form and you can read an except of The Other Half of Life here.

Below is a ten-minute talk by Kim Ablon Whitney on The Other Half of Life.

This is book 6 of my Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry