The paper trail they have accumulated offers a panorama of the larger Holocaust, with St. Louis passengers perishing in gas chambers, shambling out of the death camps, enduring in hiding, or secretly making their way to safety in the United States or Israel. Only for 36 does the trail run cold soon after the voyage's end. The researchers knew that their Meta Munz, born in 1912 in Altengronau, Germany, and her family found haven in Belgium after the St. Louis debacle. They also knew that Ms. Munz's father, Karl, died in the Gurs internment camp in France, that her mother, Sophie, and sister, Paula, were sent to Auschwitz in 1942. But they had no record of Meta Munz.
Refugees can be suspicious.
So the researchers trekked 10 blocks downtown and asked Eva Knoller, who runs the Washington Heights office of Selfhelp Community Services, to make calls for them. They're just trying to trace people. Minna Muenz told her she was not on the St. Louis, but said there was a Walter Munz in Riverdale who might know more. Walter Munz told Mrs. Knoller that Meta Munz had been a neighbor in Altengronau, one of the village's 46 Jews, and that her brother Morris was living in Forest Hills, Queens. Mrs. Knoller called Morris Munz's number and left a message.