Seventy-five years ago, the S.S. St. Louis left Hamburg, Germany en route to Havana, Cuba, with more than 900 Jewish refugees on board, hoping to escape Nazi persecution. Cuba refused to accept the refugees. They were also refused by the United States and Canada, and the ship was forced to return to Europe. Two of the passengers on that ship, Alexander Goldschmidt and his son, Helmut Goldschmidt are the subject of a book by Alexander’s grandson, Martin Goldsmith.
Goldsmith lives in Bethesda, and may be familiar to you as the host of Symphony Hall on Sirius XM radio, and the former host of NPR’s Performance Today. His book is called "Alex’s Wake: A Voyage of Betrayal and a Journey of Remembrance." He joins Tom Hall in the studio. You can read more about Goldsmith and his book here.
