Wien, Wien, nur du allein

Based on actual events, The Voyage Of The Damned (1976) is the story of the liner "St. Louis" which departed from Hamburg, Germany in 1939, carrying 937 Jews from Germany to Havana, Cuba. By this time, the Jews had suffered the rise of anti-Semitism and realised that this might be their last chance to escape. The film details the emotional journey of the passengers who gradually become aware that their passage has been an exercise in propaganda and that they were never intended to disembark in Cuba. Rather, they were to be used as examples before the world. A Nazi official said that when the whole world has refused to accept them as refugees, no country can blame Germany for the fate of the Jews.
The government of Cuba refuses entry to the passengers, and as the liner waits near the Florida coastline, they learn that the United States has also rejected them. They have no choice but to return to Europe. The captain tells a confidante that he has received a letter signed by 200 passengers saying they will join hands and jump into the sea rather than return to Germany. He says he is intending to deliberately run the liner aground on a reef off the southern coast of England.

Shortly before the film's end, it is revealed that the governments of the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and the Netherlands have agreed to accept a share of the passengers as refugees. Of the original 936 refugees, it is estimated that roughly 709 survived, with about 227 slain in the death camps. In 1998, staff from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum attempted to trace survivors from the voyage.

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards:
Best Supporting Actress - Lee Grant
Best Original Score - Lalo Schifrin
Best Writing Adapted Screenplay - David Butler and Steve Shagan.

It was nominated for six Golden Globe awards, including "Best Picture". Katharine Ross won the award for "Best Actress in a Supporting Role".

In this poignant scene, at a masked party on board to celebrate their anticipated arrival in Havana, a singer (Ina Skriver) suddenly changes the mood with the beautiful and elegiac Vienna, City Of My Dreams

Wien, Wien, nur du allein
Sollst stets die Stadt meiner Träume sein !
Dort, wo die alten Häuser stehn,
Dort, wo die lieblichen Mädchen gehn !
Wien, Wien, nur du allein
Sollst stets die Stadt meiner Träume sein!
Dort, wo ich glücklich und selig bin,
Ist Wien, ist Wien, mein Wien !

....Then I would hear an imaginary, faraway song,
that sounds and sings, that entices and draws me.
Vienna, Vienna you alone
will always be the city of my dreams,
there, where the cute old houses are,
there, where the lovely girls walk.
Vienna, Vienna you alone
will always be the city of my dreams
there, where I am happy and delirious
is Vienna, is Vienna, my Vienna.

Category:

Travel & Events

[GermanAmericanFrench]

Thank you so much. It's an exellent movie, with many emotional scenes such as this one. Ina Skriver sang the song beautifully. Except ... a little mistake. Obvioulsly no German speaker on the set that day, because the singer sings: "Wien ..... nur du allein, SOLL STET die Stadt ..." But it has to say "....SOLLST STETS die Stadt...." Since a singer/entertainer on a ship like that could also be a non-native German speaker, a few mistakes are OK and do not harm the whole picture:--))), .

[Hanvay]

Sade Juden.

[Igor340]

Thanks for uploading this bit of history...........