Reprieved Norgoma to double as refugee ship in tv documentary

City Council has agreed to allow M.S. Norgoma to remain at Roberta Bondar Marina, but only until Apr. 15

Jewish refugees are shown in June 1939 as they waited on the M.S. St. Louis for word on whether they would be allowed ashore in Havana. Rejected by Canada, the United States and Cuba, the ship's passengers were forced to return to Europe, where about 250 of them died in the Holocaust. Photo credit: U.S. National Archives at College Park, Maryland

Sault Ste. Marie's controversial museum ship Norgoma will be used by a Toronto filmmaker to portray one of the most ignominious chapters of Canadian history.

Historical Film Studios Corp. of Toronto has signed an agreement allowing it to film at the museum ship for one day between Oct. 15 and Nov. 20.

The Norgoma is expected to double as the M.S. St. Louis, which sailed to Cuba, the United States and Canada in 1939, carrying 907 passengers, nearly all of them Jewish and many fleeing Nazi Germany.

The St. Louis and its passengers were rejected by all three countries.

It was forced to return to Europe, where more than 250 of the St. Louis refugees died in the Holocaust.

St. Mary's River Marine Centre had been ordered to move the Norgoma out of the city-owned marina by Aug. 31, but this week, City Council gave the museum ship a brief reprieve.

The ship will be allowed to remain in place until Apr. 15, provided that arrangements for a new location have been finalized by Feb. 1.

Historical Film Studios Corp. is filming a sweeping two-part documentary titled Search out the land: The story of the Jewish community of Canada.

"A Canadian broadcaster has agreed to air the documentary series during prime time and across Canada in 2019," says producer/director Len Pearl.

"The film is a journey through time, from the first colonies in New France to the present," Pearl says in a letter to prospective investors in the project.

"This positive, uplifting documentary relates the story of the Jewish community of Canada and its many contributions to the history of our country while also touching on those dark periods that always have to be surmounted whenever newcomers are seeking a fresh start in another land."

The late 1930s was definitely a difficult time to be Jewish.

Frederick Blair, director of Canadian government's immigration branch, wanted nothing to do with the St. Louis refugees.

"No country," Blair said, "could open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who want to leave Europe. The line must be drawn somewhere.”

The previous year, Blair had tellingly written that “it might be a very good thing if they would call a conference and have a day of humiliation and prayer which might profitably be extended for a week or more, when [Jews] would honestly try to answer the question of why they are so unpopular everywhere.”

Also in 1938, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King penned in his private diary: "We must nevertheless seek to keep this part of the continent free from unrest and from too great an intermixture of foreign strains of blood, as much the same thing as lies at the basis of the Oriental problem. I fear we would have riots if we agreed to a policy that admitted numbers of Jews."

The Toronto filmmakers learned about the Norgoma from Tom Douglas, former editor of Sault This Week.

"Len Pearl is the co-director of my son's Stephen King/Sherlock Holmes movie," Douglas tells SooToday.

"I met him on the shoot in Victoria last year.... I suggested to him that the Norgoma would be a great place to film the turning away of Jewish refugees on the St. Louis and he is keen on it."

Pearl has obtained support for the two-part documentary from more than 50 foundations and sponsors including the Gerald Sheff and Shanitha Kachan Foundation, the Gerald Schwartz & Heather Reisman Foundation, the Elizabeth & Tony Comper Foundation, the Birks Family Foundation and Power Corporation of Canada.

"The project is being produced under the auspices of the United Jewish Appeal of Toronto," he says.

Additional funds are currently being sought to pay for the cost of coming to Sault Ste. Marie to film the Norgoma scenes.

As for the search for a new home for the Norgoma, St. Mary's River Marine Centre has approached the Bushplane Museum, Parks Canada, Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority and the S.S. Valley Camp historic site in the Michigan Soo, but has so far been unsuccessful in securing a new location.

The City of Sault Ste. Marie is anxious to replace the Bondar Marina's wooden docks next year, but the Norgoma issue must be resolved before the dock work can begin.

A strategic plan for the Norgoma prepared by Sean Meades of NORDIK Institute calls for hiring a permanent director for the maritime attraction in the fall of 2019.