Over 30 years, from 1890 to 1921, 2.5 million Jews, fleeing discrimination and violence in their Eastern European homelands, arrived in the United States. Many sailed on steamships from Hamburg, Germany. The mass exodus was facilitated by three businessmen whose involvement in this story from the Jewish-American narrative has been largely forgotten: Jacob Schiff, the managing partner of the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Co., who used his immense wealth to help Jews leave Europe; Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg America Line, who created a transportation network of trains and steamships to carry them across continents and an ocean; and J. P. Morgan, mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine Co. trust, who tried to monopolize the lucrative steamship business.
Drawing on his new book, Last Ships from Hamburg: Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia's Jews on the Eve of World War I (Harper Collins), author and historian Steven Ujifusa tells the story of how three titans of industry forged powerful alliances and compelling rivalries that made possible a migration that spared millions from persecution. Ujifusa’s book is available for purchase.
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