Arnold Bernstein
Arnold Bernstein (23 January 1888, in Breslau, Silesia, German Empire – March 1971 in Ocean Ridge, Florida, U.S.[1]) 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.
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,[3] but he was not allowed into the Officer Corps because he was Jewish.
[3] Several years later, Bernstein owned three successful passenger lines that operated in Europe, the United States, and British Palestine.
[5] During the early 1930s, Bernstein personally experienced the growing anti-Semitism even though he did not consider himself a practicing religious Jew.
Bernstein did not trust Hitler's promise to Hindenburg that he would not harm Jews who had fought in the first World War, but his wife did not want to emigrate.
After being held in jail for eleven months, he was tried in court for violating Germany's currency laws and treason.
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.
[15] Bernstein was a flexible thinker who preferred straightforward methods, but he would develop complex transactions to match the needs of investors, customers and regulators.
Bernstein once said, "All business is a kind of war and you stand a fair chance of winning if you stick to your guns.
Using Triora S.A., Panama, his investor group planned to purchase the ship and rename her Silver Star (not Silverstar).
Finally in May 1950 her owners closed the sale of Nilla to a "Swiss" investor, Mr. Vasile Ladislau "Leslie" Winkler (b.
(Estrella de Plata is the specific Spanish language way of translating Silver Star, the award first granted during World War II to U.S.
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.
Beginning in 1952 the Bernstein-controlled Silver Star Line sailed Silverstar for "informal" vacation cruises from Washington DC,[19] Charleston, Miami, and New Orleans to the Caribbean Sea, calling mainly in ports like Bermuda, Nassau, Havana and Vera Cruz.
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.
[20] 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.
[3] In 1959, he sold Atlantic to American Export Lines in order to be refitted as a warm weather cruise liner, and he decided to retire at the age of 71, to his home in New Rochelle, New York, because of his declining health.
