Trudeau apologises for Canada's 1939 refusal of Jewish refugee ship

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hugs Liberal MP Linda Lapointe after delivering a formal apology over the fate of the MS St. Louis and its passengers, in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada November 7, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologised on Wednesday for the country's 1939 refusal to take in a ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees, adding that the country would do more to protect Canadian Jews from violence.

The St. Louis left Hamburg in May 1939 in a desperate search for a safe haven from persecution by Nazi Germany. After it was rebuffed by Canada and other nations, it returned to Europe, where historians have estimated that more than 250 of the passengers were murdered in Nazi death camps.