Unwanted: The Voyage of the St. Louis
Your job at the American Coast Guard is a noble one, but this assignment makes you sick to your stomach.
You stand rigidly at attention as orders are barked out. You are to take out a gunboat and trail a German liner full of Jewish refugees. You need to prevent any of them from jumping overboard and swimming the treacherous few miles to shore.
Personally, you think the frigid ocean will do a good enough job on its own.
This ship, the St. Louis, has been all over the papers. Your wife clucked in sympathy when she read about it and you know that she's been troubling herself over the plight of the "poor darlings" as she's fond of saying. Bless her heart, she has too much love to give for just one husband and two children. Perhaps, with the third on the way, she'll finally run out of her endless caring. You smile thinking of her, and then return to the present.
This is wrong.
But what can you do?
If you protest, you'll be punished for insubordination, and they'll just send someone else in your place. There is no point, but you were always raised to do the right thing.
You stand rigidly at attention as orders are barked out. You are to take out a gunboat and trail a German liner full of Jewish refugees. You need to prevent any of them from jumping overboard and swimming the treacherous few miles to shore.
Personally, you think the frigid ocean will do a good enough job on its own.
This ship, the St. Louis, has been all over the papers. Your wife clucked in sympathy when she read about it and you know that she's been troubling herself over the plight of the "poor darlings" as she's fond of saying. Bless her heart, she has too much love to give for just one husband and two children. Perhaps, with the third on the way, she'll finally run out of her endless caring. You smile thinking of her, and then return to the present.
This is wrong.
But what can you do?
If you protest, you'll be punished for insubordination, and they'll just send someone else in your place. There is no point, but you were always raised to do the right thing.