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Canada to formally apologize in November for turning away German Jews in 1939

statue, prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, Parliament building, Ottawa,
A statue of former prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King looks over the Parliament buildings on Friday, September 13, 2013 in Ottawa. File photo by The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will formally apologize in November for turning away a boat of German Jews seeking asylum in 1939, which led to the deaths of more than 200 people.

Trudeau says it was a moral failure on the part of the government of the day.

The MS St. Louis ship had 907 Jews, who were fleeing Nazi persecution, aboard when it was turned away from both Cuba and the United States before a group of Canadians tried to convince then-prime minister Mackenzie King's government to let it dock in Halifax.

King was unable to convince Frederick Blair, the director of the immigration branch of the federal Department of Mines and Resources, to allow them into the country.

The ship returned to Europe and many found safety in countries like Holland, the U.K. and France, but 254 of those on board eventually died in the Holocaust after returning to Germany.

Trudeau says he announced the date for the apology on a call Thursday with the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus, a national body of rabbis.

The prime minister says the government will make the apology in the House of Commons on Nov. 7.

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