Louisa Kats, 95, is one of the last people alive to have made the crossing by ship from Antwerp to America in the 1930s. At the end of a tour of Antwerp’s Red Star Line Museum for her birthday, she recognised photos of herself in New York as a baby, put on display by her family.
“But that’s me! That’s my photo and immigration card!” As a surprise for her birthday, Louisa’s grandson had arranged for a number of family photos and documents to be displayed at the museum.
“There I am with my father and mother in Central Park and on Coney Island,” Louisa says. “And here you see me in a costume as Red Riding Hood.” The family went to New York in 1930, when Louisa was less than a year old. A few years later, she would leave America and return to Antwerp.
“My father was a world traveller but he kept telling stories about the trip to America,” she recalls. “At one point, the ship’s engines stopped. My father walked up to the deck and watched us skim past a metre-high iceberg. We were almost the Titanic!”
For the Red Star Line Museum, Louisa’s visit was special. “We often get the descendants of passengers coming over,” says director Karen Moeskops. “But Louisa experienced it all herself and is still very healthy in body and mind.”
Normally, the photos and documents would be returned to the Kats family, but Louisa decided that they should remain on display for visitors to admire until at least the end of this year.
“This means a lot to me. No words can describe what I feel right now,” she said.
The museum, opened in 2013, is on the former site of the Red Star Line shipping company in Antwerp’s Eilandje district. It tells the stories of 20th-century emigrants and explores questions about migration.
This means a lot to me. No words can describe what I feel right now