A small-scale scenario- What if the St. Louis, went to Santo Domingo?

[raharris1973]

The USS St. Louis, holding many German and Austrian Jewish refugees was turned back by American and Cuban immigration authorities. Ultimately its passengers were returned to Europe, where a significant portion of them were later killed in the Holocaust.

However, what if the skipper had tried to go to Santo Domingo? The Trujillo government I believe had a welcoming policy to refugees, and fewer people came than he was willing to let in.

Would Trujillo have given refuge to all passengers? If so, what would have been the long-term effects for the Dominican Republic and USA?

Would some other ship have taken the place of the St. Louis as a symbol of the heartlessness and prejudice of American immigration policy in the 1930s? If so, anybody know which one it would be?

What alterations might the granting of refuge to the St. Louis passengers have made to the historiography of the Holocaust?

 

[Deleted member 67076]

The USS St. Louis, holding many German and Austrian Jewish refugees was turned back by American and Cuban immigration authorities. Ultimately its passengers were returned to Europe, where a significant portion of them were later killed in the Holocaust.

However, what if the skipper had tried to go to Santo Domingo? The Trujillo government I believe had a welcoming policy to refugees, and fewer people came than he was willing to let in.

Would Trujillo have given refuge to all passengers? If so, what would have been the long-term effects for the Dominican Republic and USA?

Would some other ship have taken the place of the St. Louis as a symbol of the heartlessness and prejudice of American immigration policy in the 1930s? If so, anybody know which one it would be?

What alterations might the granting of refuge to the St. Louis passengers have made to the historiography of the Holocaust?

Yes, the Dominican government would have left them come in. Trujillo OTL had a welcoming policy to Jews and even some Japanese. As well, he did save WW2 refugees.

As for the effects on the Dominican Republic. Well, it depends on whose on the ship, but I suspect that it would be good. For example, Japanese immigration to Constanza, La Vega introduced the bokashi technique and were a boon to agriculture. I believe that province produces a large amount of vegetables thanks to them. Going with that if many of those passengers are professionals this will be a good thing for a country that was a large primarily agriculture, third world country.

I suspect most of the immigrants will be settled in Sosua, Puerto Plata, with most of the other WW2 immigrants and European immigrants of that era. So that city will receive a large amount of immigrants, many of them professionals, which is always good. This group may establish the go to destination of Jews, Germans and Austrians in the future and may set up a German speaking group in Dominican Republic. I suspect this German will be a separate dialect unique to Dominican Republic, probably with Dominican Spanish and later, American English influence. These immigrants all in all will be a positive boost, especially if they decide to stay.

Long term, the Trujillo govt will still fall. He turned that country in a police state and had a huge amount of enemies. I doubt the recent immigrants will be able to do anything, even if they come in the earlier part of his 30 year rule.

The effects on the US-Dominican Relations would be minimal. The US rarely cared what Trujillo did and I suspect this will be no different.

As for the ships, I don't know.

 

[Fearless Leader]

Yes, the Dominican government would have left them come in. Trujillo OTL had a welcoming policy to Jews and even some Japanese. As well, he did save WW2 refugees.

As for the effects on the Dominican Republic. Well, it depends on whose on the ship, but I suspect that it would be good. For example, Japanese immigration to Constanza, La Vega introduced the bokashi technique and were a boon to agriculture. I believe that province produces a large amount of vegetables thanks to them. Going with that if many of those passengers are professionals this will be a good thing for a country that was a large primarily agriculture, third world country.

I suspect most of the immigrants will be settled in Sosua, Puerto Plata, with most of the other WW2 immigrants and European immigrants of that era. So that city will receive a large amount of immigrants, many of them professionals, which is always good. This group may establish the go to destination of Jews, Germans and Austrians in the future and may set up a German speaking group in Dominican Republic. I suspect this German will be a separate dialect unique to Dominican Republic, probably with Dominican Spanish and later, American English influence. These immigrants all in all will be a positive boost, especially if they decide to stay.

Long term, the Trujillo govt will still fall. He turned that country in a police state and had a huge amount of enemies. I doubt the recent immigrants will be able to do anything, even if they come in the earlier part of his 30 year rule.

The effects on the US-Dominican Relations would be minimal. The US rarely cared what Trujillo did and I suspect this will be no different.

As for the ships, I don't know.

Actually, there was a reason the St. Louis did not attempt to go to Santo Domingo, because Trujillo would've turned them down. Yes Trujillo did offer to take in 100k Jewish refugees at the Evian conference in 1938, but in the fine print he was very specific about what kind of Jewish refugees he wanted. He wanted a-political (or even better right wing) argiculturalists, not left leaning, democratically minded, city dwellers. Furthermore any Jewish immigration was to be heavily financed by the JDC which was to oversee the construction of a colony around Sosua. By the time of the St. Louis, the colony had barely begun construction. There was simply nothing there.

Let's not forget that the actual number of Jews Trujillo took in was only a fraction of what he offered to take in, roughly 2500. Most of whom moved to the USA at the earliest opportunity as life on the colony was hard.

Now, not to be a total downer, let me suggest a different POD to get a similar result. In OTL the strict immigration requirements on Jewish immigrants to the DR were only lifted in 1949 as Trujillo had ideas of having the DR become an alternate Jewish homeland should Israel not work out. By this time he had almost complete control over the Dominican Republic's economy and was eager to ransom places for European Jews and reap the economic rewards. However by this time any appetite for settling Jews anywhere but Palestine had all but disappeared and his plan fell flat on its face.

So as a POD let's have Trujillo gain greater control of the Dominican economy earlier (early 1930's) perhaps coinciding with the ethnic cleansing of Haitians along the DR/Haiti border that occurred in OTL. Thus in TTL Trujillo possesses an additional incentive to take in Jewish refugees, both in terms of the American money coming from the Joint and "Whitening" the countryside. An initial number of 100,000 is given and soon refugees begin to flow in. Some go to agricultural colonies while others are employed building roads, dams, and a host of other infrastructure projects throughout the DR all funded by the JDC.

That being said, I doubt more than 250k could be saved by emigrating to the DR. It was tough to emigrate in the first place, and heading for effective slave labour on an island swarming with tropical diseases without the foresight that the Holocaust was about to happen was an unpalatable option to say the least.