The Last Ships from Hamburg: Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia’s Jews on the Eve of World War I

"Thoroughly researched and beautifully written history."—New York Times Book Review

“Absorbing . . . a David-and-Goliath tale of the industrial age.”—Wall Street Journal

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 Ginsburg, Estée Lauder, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Fanny Brice, Lauren Bacall, the Marx Brothers, David Sarnoff, Al Jolson, Sam Goldwyn, Ben Shahn, Hank Greenberg, 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.

Three men—a banker, a shipping magnate, and a monopolist—changed the course of history.

• A Forgotten Chapter of Jewish History: Follow the perilous journey of 2.5 million Jews from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the ports of Hamburg and the promise of a new life in America.
• Maritime Power and Monopoly: Discover the untold story of Albert Ballin, head of the Hamburg-American Line, and his rival J. P. Morgan, who sought to control the profitable transatlantic steamship business.
• The Philanthropist and the Financier: Learn how investment banker Jacob Schiff used his immense wealth to facilitate the mass exodus, often putting him at odds with the other titans of the age.
• The Rise of American Nativism: Explore the political forces that fought to close America’s golden door, connecting the Gilded Age immigration debate to the refugee crises of today.

Steven Ujifusa is the author of A Man and His Ship and Barons of the Sea. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard University and a master’s degree in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and has given presentations across the country and on the high seas. He is the recipient of a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence from the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia’s Literary Award. He lives with his wife, a pediatric emergency room physician, and his two sons, in Philadelphia.