Presentación de la Novela: "Concierto para Leah". por Maira Landa. Intervención de Carlos Alberto Montaner
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El St. Louis en el puerto de Hamburgo en junio de 1939
Si les interesa profundizar en el tema del buque MS St. Louis pueden leer el libro titulado Voyage of the Damned, el cual también fue editado en español con el de El viaje de los condenados, de Gordon Thomas y Max Morgan-Witts. Hay varias películas o films sobre ese tema; una de ellas tiene el mismo título de ese libro y fue filmada en 1976. El mencionado libro ofrece una lista de fuentes consultadas.
En los trágicos hechos del MS St. Louis es muy frecuente confundir al Coronel Benitez con el General Benitez; en Cuba una de esas personas que los confundió lo fue un experimentado crítico cinematográfico cuando hizo la presentación de la película un domingo por la TV nacional.
El coronel Manuel Benitez no era un hombre de Batista, sino del General Rafael Montalvo Morales. El General Montalvo fue el único individuo del Gabinete del destituido Presidente Miguel Mariano Gómez que pasó a integrar el Ejecutivo de Federico Laredo Brú; Montalvo pasó de la Secretaría de Defensa Nacional a la de Secretario de Estado. El General Montalvo era cuñado de Julio Lobo, ¨El Zar del Azúcar¨, el cual era judío. El General Montalvo es el personaje misterioso del mencionado libroEl Coronel Benitez no tiene nada que ver con el General Manuel Benitez, fallecido en Miami hace ya algunos años, y que sí era un hombre de Batista.0
Sobre la responsabilidad del Presidente Federico Laredo Brú, leemos en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis
Early in 1939, Cuba enacted Decree 55, which stated there was a difference between a tourist and a refugee. The refugee was required to have a visa and to pay a $500 bond. However, a tourist did not have to abide by these requirements. While Decree 55 stated that refugees were different from tourists, one large oversight existed: it did not define what the difference was between refugees and tourists. Manuel Benitez, Director of Immigration, took advantage of this flaw and called the refugees aboard the St. Louis tourists. This distinction enabled Benitez to sell landing permits (something only tourists could purchase) to the St. Louis refugees for $150. Benitez benefitted from selling the landing permits until the President of Cuba, Frederico Laredo Bru, discovered that Benitez was profiting from the Decree's loophole and refused to share his profits. Angered by Benitez's actions, as well as Cuba's poor economy and growing resentment of refugees, President Bru passed Decree 937, which remedied Decree 55's flaw.[4]
Intervención de Carlos Alberto Montaner
Nota del Blogguista
El St. Louis en el puerto de Hamburgo en junio de 1939Si les interesa profundizar en el tema del buque MS St. Louis pueden leer el libro titulado Voyage of the Damned, el cual también fue editado en español con el de El viaje de los condenados, de Gordon Thomas y Max Morgan-Witts. Hay varias películas o films sobre ese tema; una de ellas tiene el mismo título de ese libro y fue filmada en 1976. El mencionado libro ofrece una lista de fuentes consultadas.
En los trágicos hechos del MS St. Louis es muy frecuente confundir al Coronel Benitez con el General Benitez; en Cuba una de esas personas que los confundió lo fue un experimentado crítico cinematográfico cuando hizo la presentación de la película un domingo por la TV nacional.
El coronel Manuel Benitez no era un hombre de Batista, sino del General Rafael Montalvo Morales. El General Montalvo fue el único individuo del Gabinete del destituido Presidente Miguel Mariano Gómez que pasó a integrar el Ejecutivo de Federico Laredo Brú; Montalvo pasó de la Secretaría de Defensa Nacional a la de Secretario de Estado. El General Montalvo era cuñado de Julio Lobo, ¨El Zar del Azúcar¨, el cual era judío. El General Montalvo es el personaje misterioso del mencionado libroEl Coronel Benitez no tiene nada que ver con el General Manuel Benitez, fallecido en Miami hace ya algunos años, y que sí era un hombre de Batista.0
Sobre la responsabilidad del Presidente Federico Laredo Brú, leemos en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis
Early in 1939, Cuba enacted Decree 55, which stated there was a difference between a tourist and a refugee. The refugee was required to have a visa and to pay a $500 bond. However, a tourist did not have to abide by these requirements. While Decree 55 stated that refugees were different from tourists, one large oversight existed: it did not define what the difference was between refugees and tourists. Manuel Benitez, Director of Immigration, took advantage of this flaw and called the refugees aboard the St. Louis tourists. This distinction enabled Benitez to sell landing permits (something only tourists could purchase) to the St. Louis refugees for $150. Benitez benefitted from selling the landing permits until the President of Cuba, Frederico Laredo Bru, discovered that Benitez was profiting from the Decree's loophole and refused to share his profits. Angered by Benitez's actions, as well as Cuba's poor economy and growing resentment of refugees, President Bru passed Decree 937, which remedied Decree 55's flaw.[4]
Se puede leer más sobre el injustamente casi desconocido en Cuba Federico Laredo Brú en
http://www.encaribe.org
http://www.encaribe.org
Sobre el viaje del MS St. Louis y las víctimas se lee en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_Damned
Plot
Based on actual events, the story told of the MS St. Louis, which departed from Hamburg, Germany in 1939, carrying 937 Jews from Germany to Havana, Cuba. By this time, the Jews had suffered the rise of anti-Semitism and realised that this might be their last chance to escape. The film details the emotional journey of the passengers who gradually become aware that their passage has been an exercise
in propaganda and that they were never intended to disembark in Cuba. Rather, they were to be used as examples before the world. A Nazi official said that when the whole world has refused to accept them as refugees, no country can blame Germany for the fate of the Jews.
(Judías en la claraboya del ST. Louis, cuando este estuvo atracado en el puerto de La Habana, Cuba)
The government of Cuba refuses entry to the passengers, and as the liner waits near the Florida coastline, they learn that the United States has also rejected them. They have no choice but to return to Europe. The captain tells a confidante that he has received a letter signed by 200 passengers saying they will join hands and jump into the sea rather than return to Germany. He says he is intending to deliberately run the liner aground on a reef off the southern coast of England.
Shortly before the film's end, it is revealed that the governments of the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and the Netherlands have each agreed to accept a share of the passengers as refugees. As they cheer and clap at the good news, footnotes disclose the fates of some of the main characters, and reveal that more than 600 of the ship's 937 passengers ultimately lost their lives in Nazi concentration camps. However, the book presents a much lower number: By using the survival rates for Jews in various countries, Thomas and Morgan-Witts estimated that about 180 of the St. Louis refugees in France, 152 of those in Belgium, and 60 of those in the Netherlands, survived the Holocaust. Adding to these the passengers who disembarked in England, they estimated that of the original 936 refugees (one man died during the voyage), roughly 709 survived and 227 were slain.[2][3] (See the relevant article.)
In 1998, Scott Miller and Sarah Ogilvie of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum traced the survivors from the voyage. The conclusion of their research was that a slightly higher total of 254 refugees died at the hands of the Nazis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_Damned
Plot
Based on actual events, the story told of the MS St. Louis, which departed from Hamburg, Germany in 1939, carrying 937 Jews from Germany to Havana, Cuba. By this time, the Jews had suffered the rise of anti-Semitism and realised that this might be their last chance to escape. The film details the emotional journey of the passengers who gradually become aware that their passage has been an exercise
in propaganda and that they were never intended to disembark in Cuba. Rather, they were to be used as examples before the world. A Nazi official said that when the whole world has refused to accept them as refugees, no country can blame Germany for the fate of the Jews.(Judías en la claraboya del ST. Louis, cuando este estuvo atracado en el puerto de La Habana, Cuba)
The government of Cuba refuses entry to the passengers, and as the liner waits near the Florida coastline, they learn that the United States has also rejected them. They have no choice but to return to Europe. The captain tells a confidante that he has received a letter signed by 200 passengers saying they will join hands and jump into the sea rather than return to Germany. He says he is intending to deliberately run the liner aground on a reef off the southern coast of England.
Shortly before the film's end, it is revealed that the governments of the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and the Netherlands have each agreed to accept a share of the passengers as refugees. As they cheer and clap at the good news, footnotes disclose the fates of some of the main characters, and reveal that more than 600 of the ship's 937 passengers ultimately lost their lives in Nazi concentration camps. However, the book presents a much lower number: By using the survival rates for Jews in various countries, Thomas and Morgan-Witts estimated that about 180 of the St. Louis refugees in France, 152 of those in Belgium, and 60 of those in the Netherlands, survived the Holocaust. Adding to these the passengers who disembarked in England, they estimated that of the original 936 refugees (one man died during the voyage), roughly 709 survived and 227 were slain.[2][3] (See the relevant article.)
In 1998, Scott Miller and Sarah Ogilvie of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum traced the survivors from the voyage. The conclusion of their research was that a slightly higher total of 254 refugees died at the hands of the Nazis.
*****
Presentación de la novela de Maira Landa "Concierto para Leah", llevada a cabo el lunes 19 de septiembre de 2011 en el Temple Beth Shmuel del Cuban Hebrew Congregation, situado en 1701 Lenox Avenue Miami Beach, FL 33139.
Intervención de Carlos Alberto Montaner
posted by PPAC @ 9/21/2011 08:02:00 p. m.
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