Keibel, now 95, is among the oldest living survivors of the ship. The story would be recounted in the book Voyage of the Damned and, later, in an eponymous film. Louis became a tragic example of the West's indifference to the plight of European Jews and a footnote to America's difficult history with immigration. Nearly a third later died, many in the concentration camps they had so desperately tried to avoid. They were eventually dispersed throughout Europe just months before war swept across the continent. Instead, the passengers were forced to chart a course back across the Atlantic. It was May 13, 1939, and the next few weeks would bring the 15-year-old to the doorsteps of Cuba and the United States, where she and the 936 other Jews aboard the steamliner pleaded for sanctuary, fearful that a return to Nazi Germany would be a death sentence. Louis and said goodbye to Germany, the only home she had ever known. Eighty years ago, Jane Keibel stepped aboard the M.S.
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