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The Marlboro Jewish Center held its Holocaust Memorial Service on April 19, where Eva Wiener, a survivor of the ill-fated St. Louis ship, spoke about her experiences.

The St. Louis was a ship of 937 refugees from Germany, who obtained visas for Cuba, and embarked on a voyage of what they thought would lead to freedom. However, when they arrived in Cuba they were denied entry.

Wiener, who was an infant when she was on the ship, said she didn't know what was really going on until later in life when her parents told her. She grew up in Germany, where her grandfather owned a large bakery and the only kosher bakery in Berlin, she said. Her father was one of 11 children and her mother made dresses.

Many of her aunts and uncles couldn't bear to live under persecution any longer and found ways to flee Germany, she said. But her parents couldn't find a way.

"The night of Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, was the turning point," Wiener said.

The next day, Wiener said her father was taken from their home, sent to the train station where he was sent back to his country of origin, Poland. From there the Nazis sent him to the Warsaw Ghetto. Immediately, Wiener's mother went to consulates and begged for a permit or a visa and eventually she obtained a visa to Siam, which is currently Thailand.

"She proceeded to go to the police station and show the affidavit that we had a visa to Siam, which then allowed my father to return from Poland to join her to leave the country," Wiener said.

Wiener's mother also sent money to her uncle in hopes that he could obtain visas or landing permits for them. While her father was on his way back to Berlin, Wiener and her family obtained their visas.

She said there was finally hope for her family, and they felt a sense of freedom by obtaining those visas. They bought tickets for the St. Louis, which was scheduled to leave Hamburg, Germany on May 19, 1939. The boat was will filled with dreams of freedom and high expectations, but little did they know it was just another ploy in the Nazi regime, she said.

"The government had decided to use this ship as an indication to the world that they were unanimously allowing Jews to leave," Wiener said. "On the dock there was a band being paid for by the government, there were government photographers. They took pictures of everyone."

The trip to Cuba was great because it was like going on a cruise, she said. But, those views changed greatly when they arrived at the docks of Havana, she said. The Nazis wanted to show the world that not only were they powerful, but more importantly that no one wanted the Jews, she said. The Nazi government, before the St. Louis left for Havana, met with the Cuban government and told them to deny the ship entry to Cuba and to declare their visas and papers null and void.

"The deviant plotting of the Nazi propaganda machine planned this trip," she said. "Our ship became a pawn in a chess game that was being played by the Nazis."

Chaos and panic swept throughout the boat because people didn't know what to do and feared going back to Germany. People didn't understand why they couldn't dock if they had the correct papers, she said.

"Believe it or not, even the captain was not aware for what was in store for us," Wiener said.

The captain, Gustav Schroder, was determined to get the passengers to safety and most importantly not to allow them to go back to Germany, Wiener said. He tried docking in Miami and Canada, but the ship was denied in both places.

" 'One Jew is too many,' the prime minister of Canada said," Wiener said.

The captain then selected a group of people on the ship, which included her parents, to form a committee that would call as many countries as possible to beg them to take the passengers. After spending four weeks on the ship with no response from any of the countries, it looked like the Nazis' propaganda stunt had gone in their favor, she said.

"Finally, the captain couldn't wait any longer he had to turn the ship back towards Europe," she said. "On the trip from Havana to the coast of Europe four countries agreed to take passengers; Holland, Belgium, France, and England."

Wiener said her father made sure their family's name was on the list for England because he wanted a body of water between them and Germany. Her father's choice saved their lives, unlike many of the other passengers who went to the other countries that were eventually taken over or invaded by the Nazis.

"Many of the things that we associate with survivors of the Holocaust do not apply to me," she said. "Many times, I don't think of myself as a Holocaust survivor."

When they first arrived in England, life wasn't so easy, she said. The two biggest problems her family faced were that they only spoke Yiddish and German and they were very religious, therefore they had to assimilate quickly. Luckily, because her father worked in a bakery his whole life and her mother made dresses, they were able to find jobs and establish a life quickly.

"There was anti-Semitism in Europe, but nothing like being in continental Europe," she said.

In 1946, they immigrated to New York where she had family in Queens, she said. Wiener said she finally felt safe and at home because she was with family.

"I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to come to America," she said.