Story highlights Many passengers aboard the ship St. Louis were Jewish refugees escaping the Nazis

Twitter account posts names, photos of Holocaust victims aboard vessel in 1939

(CNN) It only took Russel Neiss about an hour and a half to create the automated Twitter account that brought to life Friday a decades-old tragedy -- more than 250 tragedies, really -- on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

It began at 2:15 a.m. ET with this from the @Stl_Manifest account. "My name is Herbet Ascher. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered at Auschwitz."

My name is Herbert Ascher. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered at Auschwitz — St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 27, 2017

Every five minutes, the name of a passenger aboard the St. Louis who died in the Holocaust is posted. By Neiss' math, it takes 21 hours to post every name.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum , the St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany, on May 13, 1939, to Havana, Cuba. Many aboard were German Jews seeking asylum from Hitler's Third Reich.

Upon arrival, most Jewish refugees were refused permission to disembark by Cuban authorities. Shortly after, the Cuban president at the time, Federico Laredo Bru, ordered the ship out of the port of Havana and Cuban waters.

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