| Original caption: “Some of the vessel’s 663 repatriates line the rails on the stern of the Swedish diplomatic exchange ship Gripsholm as the ship proceeds up New York Harbor toward its berth.” A luxury liner built in 1924, Motor Ship (MS) Gripsholm was 1 of 2 Swedish vessels contracted by the United States Government in 1942 to repatriate Americans from Europe and Asia. The ocean liner was laid up in 1939, suspending 15 years of transits between Gothenburg and New York City. She made 101 trips to bring immigrants to Canada’s Pier 21 immigration terminal in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During World War II, Gripsholm made 33 voyages to Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) in Mozambique or Mormugoa (now Goa) in Portuguese India for exchanges with the Japanese, and Stockholm or Lisbon for exchanges with the Germans. On March 6, 1944, MS Gripsholm left Lisbon, Portugal. Many of its passengers endured hellish conditions during transit to Lisbon, locked in Quarante et Huit (“Forty-and-Eight”) boxcars, which held either 40 people or 8 horses, without food, water, or sanitation for days. Jeanette Kaufmann (September 2, 1875 – March 7, 1944) suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the train and had to be carried aboard MS Gripsholm on a stretcher. Her 2 daughters watched her die the day after sailing, and she was buried at sea. 24 people were on the manifest and were expected to sail on MS Gripsholm, but the Nazi Germans did not produce them. No explanation was given. 662 other former internees, overjoyed at running hot and cold water and clean sheets, had spent up to 2 years in Nazi German Konzentrationslager (KZ). The prisoners mostly ate potatoes, and the 16 dogs allowed to return with the internees were given 2 biscuits a week. The prisoners had to make their own clothes. MS Gripsholm arrived at Jersey City, New Jersey, opposite New York City Harbor, at 1555 Hours on March 15, 1944. Immediately, 36 wounded servicemen, Americans who were former Nazi German Prisoners of War, were disembarked into ambulances and taken to Halloran General Hospital. A 149 diplomats, correspondents, and Red Cross personnel were allowed to disembark next. The rest of the passengers had to wait for screening by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The ship’s passengers represented a curious assortment of Americans – some with international accents, some who had not seen their homeland in 30 years, and children who had never set foot in the nation of their citizenship. Several famous passengers were aboard. Diplomat Douglas C. MacArthur II (July 5, 1909 – November 15, 1997), the nephew of the United States Army General, was secretary to the Vichy Embassy until he was incarcerated in 1942. S. Pinkney Tuck (May 3, 1891 – April 21, 1967) was the Chargé d’affaires to Vichy France. The Mexican Chargé d’affaires, Gilberto Bosques (July 20, 1892 – July 4, 1995), was arrested in Marseille in 1943, with 40 family members and staff. These people were exchanged for incarcerated Germans in Mexico. Francis G. Law (June 16, 1889 – December 29, 1974) of Saint Louis, Missouri, was a World War I veteran who stopped writing his parents in 1918. Declared dead, his wife remarried, and his parents grieved. But in March 1944, he disembarked from MS Gripsholm with a new European wife. The Swedish crew was officially considered part of the United States Merchant Marine and received the same shore leave privileges as United States citizens. Like the ship, they spent years continuously abroad. Hired under 6-month contracts in 1942, the original crew served through 1944, and many continued to the end in 1946. MS Gripsholm, then renamed Berlin, was scrapped in 1966. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0938.jpg |
| Image Size | 197.86 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1500 x 1009 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | March 15, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Jersey City |
| State or Province | New Jersey |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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