DIE PRÄSIDENTEN

- a film about Steven Springfield
and Alexander Bergmann

The Story of the S.S. Marine Flasher

After WWII many Holocaust survivors and so called "Displaced Persons" tried to build a new life in the USA. With ships like the Marine Flasher they risked the hard passage for days and weeks.

In March 1947 this ship entered the harbour of New York with Steven Springfield on deck.

Completed as a C4 type troopship shortly after V-J Day, the Marine Flasher went to San Francisco from where she departed in late September 1945 for Okinawa and Inchon, Korea. Returning to Seattle in November, the ship next left (on Christmas Day 1945) for Shanghai and Inchon.

She returned from that voyage to Los Angeles in February and on March 7th 1946, departed, via the Panama Canal, for New York.
The Marine Flasher sailed from New York on 25 April 1946 for Bremen in Germany. She sailed on this route until September 1949.

1966 she was rebuilt as the container ship "Long Beach". In 1988 she grounded at San Juan becoming a constructive total loss.

There're many families who were brought to the United States by this ship:
You may read the interesting story of the Edelstein family - coming from Stryj, Poland (now Ukraine), in the area called Galicia. This is a story of their survival.

Thanks to Mr. Edelstein for giving permission to use some of his photos on this page!