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By Annette Finley-Croswhite

In 2005 the United Nations designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day to honor the 6 million Jews and other victim groups killed during the Holocaust and to acknowledge the victims of subsequent genocides and acts of mass violence.

At ������ we recognize this day by retelling the story of the SS Quanza, a Holocaust narrative with direct ties to our area. To realize the importance of this story, on February 15, 2024, a special community engagement event will be held to screen the documentary film, “Nobody Wants Us” produced and directed by Laura Seltzer-Duny. Seltzer-Duny will be our honored guest and will speak to the audience afterwards.  

The Quanza was a passenger liner that set sail from Lisbon, Portugal on August 9, 1940 with 317 passengers aboard. Many of these voyagers were Jewish, desperately fleeing European antisemitism and Nazi oppression. As it turned out, the Quanza was one of the last ships to leave Europe before Germany banned emigration in October of 1940 and before the United States prohibited most refugees from entering as well. Other ships had already been turned away such as the SS St. Louis that was denied entry into the United States and returned to Europe in June of 1939 after which 254 of its 937 passengers were killed in the Holocaust.   

The Quanza called in at ports in New York and Veracruz, Mexico where most of the passengers with valid visas disembarked; however, 88 were denied entry, and when the ship docked in Norfolk on September 11 to refuel before returning to Europe, it was met by armed guards. The desperate passengers began sending telegrams to anyone they thought could help them. One of those telegrams went to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who was known to be sensitive to refugee issues and was aware of what had happened to the St. Louis. Jewish leaders throughout the nation began to advocate on behalf of the refugees as well. It was at this point that a brilliant local lawyer from Newport News became aware of the passengers’ plight.

Jacob Morewitz was a maritime lawyer and thus well-versed in admiralty law. Many local attorneys filed habeas corpus petitions for the passengers on board, but they were quickly dismissed. Morewitz, however, took a different approach. He launched a libel suit against the ship’s owners alleging that they had fraudulently charged passengers for delivery to the United States while knowing they would be unable to disembark. Admiralty Case No. 6594 “Moritz Rand et. al. vs. Steamship Quanza” was eventually thrown out of court, but not before the ship was impounded for three days in Norfolk giving Eleanor Roosevelt time to convince her husband and the U.S. State Department to act. Miraculously, the Quanza passengers were granted entry on September 14, 1940. 81 disembarked and 7 opted to return to Europe. (Numbers vary slightly in document sources).

The local Jewish community, particularly members of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), also came to the passengers’ rescue. They arrived at the dock in their cars and drove the passengers to local hotels and to their own homes. Many members of Norfolk’s Ohef Sholom Temple welcomed the weary travelers, offering them hot meals and warm beds before the new arrivals made their way to other destinations in the United States. The archives at Ohef Sholom as well as the Slover Library house documents telling the Quanza story.

Unfortunately, the events surrounding the SS Quanza also roused antisemitic sentiment in the United States and angered U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long. He called  the Quanza passengers “undesirables” and subsequently worked to deny entry to most refugees arriving in U.S. ports. 

In a world where antisemitism is again on the rise and immigration issues continue to make headlines, the story of the SS Quanza remains relevant. We are thrilled to welcome Laura Seltzer-Duny to Norfolk and to honor the story of the SS Quanza. Please join us in the University Theatre on February 15 from 5:30-7:00PM and for the reception that follows. This event is sponsored by the Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding, the Center for Faculty Development, the College of Arts and Letters, the Batten College of Engineering and Technology, the Strome College of Business, the University Libraries, the Department of History, the Maritime, Ports and Logistics Institute, Annual Campus Theme Blue Connections, and the Office of Maritime Initiatives.  

A panel discussion will also follow the screening with the following guests

• Laura Seltzer-Duny, award winning PBS documentary and educational filmmaker
• Eric Mazur, Professor of Religious Studies, Gloria and David Furman Endowed Professorship, and Fellow of the Robert Nusbaum Center, Virginia Wesleyan University
• Stephanie Hawthorne, MA in Humanities (with project on the Quanza) and Financial Manager of Academic Departments, Strome College of Business

References:

Mazur, Eric. “The SS Quanza, Jewish Refugees, and the Port of Hampton Roads, 1940.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 130, no. 1 (Spring, 2022), 39-78.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Jewish Refugees aboard the SS �ϳܲ��Գ���.” .