Arnold Bernstein

Arnold Bernstein (23 January 1888, in Breslau, Silesia, German Empire – March 1971 in Ocean Ridge, Florida, U.S. ) was a German-American shipowner and pioneer of transatlantic car transport, which he revolutionised since he was transporting cars without boxing them up in wooden crates as was usual before and was thus able to reduce freight rates. When the 1929 Great Depression made the use of 'swimming garages' impractical, Bernstein then turned his cargo ships into passenger ships, with just one travel class, which he called tourist class, rather than two or three that were more usual. One of the first Jewish 'merchant princes', he was one of the victims of the Nazi appropriation policies.

Early life The eldest son of the Jewish businessman Max Bernstein and his wife Franziska Altmann, Arnold Bernstein was born 23 January 1888 in Breslau, capital city of the Prussian province of Silesia (today Wrocław, Poland). He had three sisters, Else, Alice, and Rose. Arnold considered himself to be a lazy student contrary to the values of his family. His primary education ended by age 14 and his attitude began to change when he apprenticed to his father in 1902. By the age of 21, he had adopted his father's culture of a strict work ethic and honor code for business which he carried in 1909 to the Hanseatic port city of Hamburg.

He fought in the German artillery during the First World War, rising from sergeant to captain,

Career

Bernstein founded his first shipping company in 1919. During World War I, he served in the military. After the war, he returned to his business as the Arnold Bernstein Line. Over the course of the next decade, he grew the value of his shipping enterprises. He revolutionized how vehicles were transported across the Atlantic, greatly reducing shipping costs. which emerged as an important link for Jewish emigration to Palestine during the late 1930s.

In February 1937, Bernstein was arrested on charges of foreign exchange offenses. At the time of his arrest, he was the owner of one of the largest Jewish businesses in Germany. After being held in jail for eleven months, he was tried in court for violating Germany's currency laws and treason. The prosecutor said Bernstein had an undeclared bank account of over US$80,000 in New York. Bernstein did not deny having the account, but he said he felt it did not need to be reported because it was partly for his shipping business and also because there was a $96,000 claim on his business.

Bernstein was released by Germany authorities in 1939. After making a payment of $30,000 , he was allowed to leave Germany for Holland. When Bernstein arrived in New York, he said he had been imprisoned by the German government because he was Jewish.

In 1945, Bernstein sued Holland America Line in a United States District Court. Bernstein testified that he had been pressured to sign over the Red Star Line, particularly after a Chemical Bank representative visited him in prison and told him that "You know for yourself what happens to Jews who refuse to transfer their property." He was convinced that was the only way he could be released from imprisonment in Germany was to transfer the shipping business to a Nazi trustee. Holland America Line later bought the Red Star Line's ships from the Nazis for $11million (equivalent to $million in ). Some ships from the Arnold Bernstein Line had been taken over by the Allies, but the Red Star Line had been sold to the Holland America Line. The two lines were valued at $4million (equivalent to $million in ). The U.S. federal court ruled that unlawful acts committed by the German government in Germany were not reviewable by a U.S. court, and it dismissed the lawsuit.

Bernstein was a flexible thinker who preferred straightforward methods, but he would develop complex transactions to match the needs of investors, customers and regulators. Along with other shipping industry executives, in the late 1940s, he saw an opportunity to provide a quality passenger cruise ship experience that would allow visits to smaller and older ports that the larger trans-Atlantic cruise ships were not able to meet.

Bernstein once said, "All business is a kind of war and you stand a fair chance of winning if you stick to your guns."

His first attempt to purchase the defunct partially converted cargo ship Nilla, previously the World War II LST , for conversion to a small passenger cruise ship began with a negotiation with its owners. Using Triora S.A., Panama, his investor group planned to purchase the ship and rename her Silver Star (not Silverstar). Triora S.A. was named in honor of the people of Triora who aided Francesco Moraldo in hiding two Jewish orphans from the Nazis. On 2 February 1950 the vessel left Antwerp under tow for Hamburg. However the sale to Triora S.A. had fallen through. Finally in May 1950 her owners closed the sale of Nilla to a "Swiss" investor, Mr. Vasile Ladislau "Leslie" Winkler (b. 12 Aug 1914 in Romania), who had a residence in Paris at the time. He registered the ship in Panama, owned by Compania de Naviera Rio Grande. (The brilliant Mr. Winkler was an example of a highly capable shipping industry agent displaced by war. ) Nilla was still an attractive vessel to Bernstein because it could be converted for either full passenger ship or partial passenger/car carrier ship. Mr. Winkler's purchase was a way to fulfill Bernstein's assurance of a sale to the original sellers.

In 1951, Bernstein arranged the purchase of the vessel by SGS Société de Surveillance S. A. in Geneva, Switzerland (with registered owner: Compania Naviera Estrella de Plata S. A., Panama, call sign: HOHX) and renamed Silverstar. (Estrella de Plata is the specific Spanish language way of translating Silver Star, the award first granted during World War II to U.S. Forces for gallantry in action against an enemy.) Because of his vast and detailed knowledge and experience in passenger shipping, Bernstein involved himself in the details of conversion. A successful operation of the vessel would be essential to the growth of his personal wealth; every penny he could save would make the possibility of success more likely. Every aid to efficient operation he could add during conversion would potentially increase profitability and safety.

Silverstar was brought into the shipyard of Howaldtswerke AG, Hamburg for conversion into a cruise liner while at the same time she was lengthened by 22 feet (6.71 m) at the stern. Bernstein had personal and professional connections with executives of the shipyard, and so did Winkler. Charleston, Miami, and New Orleans to the Caribbean Sea, calling mainly in ports like Bermuda, Nassau, Havana and Vera Cruz. At the end of each summer, she sailed to West Germany for annual dry docking. In March 1955 Silverstar made a port of call in Tunis on a Mediterranean cruise. In December 1956 the charter on the vessel was transferred to Caribbean Cruise Lines and she sailed for one additional voyage. In January of 1957, Silverstar was sold to state-owned Flota Argentina de Navegación Fluvial (Buenos Aires) and renamed Ciudad de Santa Fé.

In 1957, Bernstein founded the American Banner Lines in New York and arranged the financing for purchase and conversion of the freighter Badger Mariner into a passenger ship. In 1958, it was put into service as the passenger vessel Atlantic in the New York-Antwerp-Amsterdam trade, but competition with airlines caused him difficulty in financing a sister ship. He retired in 1959, due to his declining health. During his retirement years, he became interested in ecology, and he wrote extensively about the subject. He had a home in New Rochelle, New York, and Ocean Ridge, Florida.

Bernstein died of a heart ailment in Ocean Ridge, Florida.

Ships Under German Flag

Max, freighter Keilberg, freighter Betty, tugboat , freighter Aegir, freighter , freighter Max Bernstein, freighter Falkenstein, freighter Johanna, freighter Charlotte, lighter Schleswig-Holstein, freighter Eberstein, freighter Hohenstein, freighter, renamed Tel Aviv in 1935 Gerolstein, freighter & passenger ship Königstein, freighter & passenger ship Ilsenstein, freighter & passenger ship Lichtenstein, freighter Lahnstein, freighter Traunstein, freighter Drachenstein, freighter Gravenstein, freighter , transatlantic ocean liner , transatlantic ocean liner

Under non-German flag

Panamanian, freighter Orbis, freighter Continental, passenger ship Europa, passenger ship Silverstar, passenger ship (1952–56) , passenger ship (1958–59)