The Last Ships from Hamburg

Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia’s Jews on the Eve of World War I

By: Steven Ujifusa

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

A propulsive human drama that chronicles the mass exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe to America in the early years of the twentieth century, and the men who made it possible.

Over thirty years, from 1890 to 1921, 2.5 million Jews, fleeing discrimination and violence in their homelands of Eastern Europe, arrived in the United States. Many sailed on steamships from Hamburg.

This mass exodus was facilitated by three businessmen whose involvement in the Jewish-American narrative has been largely forgotten: Jacob Schiff, the managing partner of the investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Company, who used his immense wealth to help Jews to leave Europe; Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-American Line, who created a transportation network of trains and steamships to carry them across continents and an ocean; and J. P. Morgan, mastermind of the International Mercantile Marine (I.M.M.) trust, who tried to monopolize the lucrative steamship business. Though their goals were often contradictory, together they made possible a migration that spared millions from persecution. Descendants of these immigrants included Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Estée Lauder, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Fanny Brice, Lauren Bacall, the Marx Brothers, David Sarnoff, Al Jolson, Sam Goldwyn, Ben Shahn, Hank Greenberg, Felix Frankfurter, Moses Annenberg, and many more—including Ujifusa’s great grandparents. That is their legacy.

Moving from the shtetls of Russia and the ports of Hamburg to the mansions of New York’s Upper East Side and the picket lines outside of the notorious Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, The Last Ships from Hamburg is a history that unfolds on both an intimate and epic scale. Meticulously researched, masterfully told, Ujifusa’s story offers original insight into the American experience, connecting banking, shipping, politics, immigration, nativism, and war—and delivers crucial insight into the burgeoning refugee crisis of our own time.

©2023 Steven Ujifusa (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

A masterpiece

A brilliantly written and meticulously researched account of an under appreciated chapter in world history. The narration by “Golden Voice” honoree, Arthur Morey, is outstanding, and adds dramatic tension and emotion.

Fascinating and informative

There was so much to appreciate about this deep dive into the German shipping business & to learn in detail how the industry used the dire situation of Russian Jews to make a profit - while helping them leave Russia for the United States. One gets a visceral appreciation for the intensity of anti-semitism at the time, the scapegoating of the Jews as the source of financial woes. It also explored in detail how some German Jews in the shipping business managed to survive and prosper.. at least for a while. Although there was some overlap with The Money Kings by Daniel Schulman, the 2 books complement one another nicely.

very detailed accounting of the period of time

I enjoyed the narrator's strong voice who gave a great performance. The story is rich in various characters who were at times difficult to keep straight. Very informative as to how these captains of industry came together during this prewar time. Learned about antisemitisms roots in the US.

A pleasant surprise.

My first book by historian Steven Ujifusa, nicely performed, gives what the title says and more. Some of the wanderzeit of more than two million who escaped from oppression and poverty to America is presented, mainly of the last stretch in ships. Improbably, many of the ships were owned and operated by jews. Emigration from eastern Europe I knew about, Ujifusa tells how the setup of possible transport for so many people came to be, in the nick of time. This precious window of opportunity, matching the dire need to escape, is clearly visible in hindsight. I did not know, but the author has given us this enchanting history, and I can see the Masters hand on His work for His people.

Great history of Eastern European emigration

Well written and wonderfully narrated, history of the emigration experience pre-World War I, coming out of Europe, and in particular Eastern Europe. It is told through a lens of the Principal people involved in the business of transporting people via the competing steamship lines of Germany and England and their American contemporaries. It is a very personal story of Jewish businessmen in Germany and America who in an effort to make a profit, created the means for hundreds of thousands of persecuted peoples, particularly the Jews, to emigrate to America. This is a terrific book. You will not be disappointed.

Learned a lot

Interesting read. Learned a lot. Not necessarily a page turner, but a good story with important implications.

Humanity in the Face of Global Evil

This history of immigration dovetails with the coming to America stories of my non-Jewish grandparents. Both grandfathers left Germany and Lebanon in the mid 1880s, homesteaded in North Dakota in the beginning of the 1900s. Around 1910, the women from each country made it to western ND and met and married the men. Especially my German grandfather, who was sent out of Germany illegally by his parents, reflects the stories of evading conscription into the army. Both men were teenagers when they left home. I'm very happy to be a second generation American, thanks to the open door that no longer exists.
Overall, I was riveted by the telling of the persecution of the Jewish people because I never realized how terrible even the United States became in their prejudice, and the Roosevelt's, too. Very shameful.