In mid-April 1940, Hermann Kesten planned to travel to the United States on a U.S. visitor's visa for a lecture tour without his wife Toni. On April 9, the day of the German Wehrmacht's invasion of Denmark and Norway, he had received his French exit visa, but the departure of the ship was postponed. Kesten's anxiety and nervousness reached its peak with the German invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium in May. Nevertheless, he and Toni decided that she should stay behind and that he would attempt to organise her departure from the safety of the United States.

The "Champlain" left the port of St. Nazaire for New York on 18 May literally at the last minute. According to Kesten's own account, the departure remained uncertain due to the war and German air raids. The writer Gustav Regler was also on board.

Kesten sent his last letter before the ship sailed to the writer Annette Kolb. In French, he implored her to take care of and support the family which he left behind. In the letter he enclosed letters of recommendation from four French friends and colleagues who, following his internment as an enemy alien in French camps, had supported him in September 1939, and thus expedited his release. He hoped that these could be help his relatives in their current dangerous situation.