On May 13, 1939, the ocean liner MS St. Louis left Germany and headed to Havana Cuba. On the ship, there were 937 passengers, most of which were Jews fleeing a Nazi-occupied Germany. Nearly all the Jewish passengers had applied for U.S. visas, and planned to stay in Cuba only until they obtained U.S. visas. However, the Cuban government "revoked" the Cuban visas, and only granted entry to Cuba to 28 of the 937 passengers. Furthermore, the U.S. refused to provide entry visas to America.