75 Years Since the Struma Disaster

Disaster? Or an atrocity committed by everyone involved?

Remember, these were people trying desperately to escape the Holocaust.
One of the most successful massacres of Jews during WWII,
and not a single German in sight!

In December 1941, 769 Jewish passengers boarded the MV Struma, a ship that was to set sail from Axis-allied Romania to seek refuge in Israel. 

The passengers each paid an exuberant amount and were promised a luxurious ship that would transport them to Israel; however, when they reached the boat, they discovered that the Struma was in fact an old dilapidated vessel, containing one bathroom, no kitchen, and hardly any space. 

She was built in 1867 as a British marquess's luxury steam yacht and ended 75 years later as a Greek and Bulgarian diesel ship for carrying livestock. Wikipedia.

After a three day journey filled with engine failures, the Struma arrived at Turkey, where they were told they would be going to pick up their immigration certificates – but there were no immigration certificates to be found. The Turks refused to let the ship board, and towed the broken ship to a quarantine section while they figured out what to do with them.

Lloyd's Register of Shipping lists her as still having her steam engine in 1934, but within a few years it had been replaced with a three-cylinder marine diesel engine built by Benz & Cie. of Mannheim in Germany. Some sources claim that the diesel engine had been salvaged from a wreck sunk in the Danube. 

In 1941 the New Zionist Organisation and the Betar Zionist youth movement chartered Struma from Jean Pandelis to take Jewish refugees from Romania to Palestine. On 12 December 1941 she left the port of Constanța in Romania carrying 10 crew and about 781 refugees. 

Her diesel engine was not working so a tug towed Struma out to sea. She drifted overnight while her crew tried in vain to start her engine. She transmitted distress signals and on 13 December the tug returned and the tug's crew repaired Struma's engine in exchange for the passenger's wedding rings. Struma then got under way but by 15 December her engine had failed again and she was towed into Istanbul in Turkey.

The British refused to let the ship sail to Mandatory Palestine, and Romania refused to allow them return. While Turkey was deliberating what to do, the boat remained anchored and isolated for ten weeks, its passengers suffering from starvation inhumane conditions.

While Turkish mechanics made unsuccessful attempts to repair Struma's engine, there was a 10-week impasse between British diplomats and Turkish officials over the fate of the refugees. Because of Arab and Zionist unrest in Palestine, Britain was determined to minimise Jewish immigration to Palestine under the terms of the White Paper of 1939. Under pressure from Britain, Turkey denied the refugees permission to come ashore. One pregnant refugee who suffered a miscarriage was allowed to disembark and admitted to an Istanbul hospital.

Reaching no agreement with England and Romania, the Turkish government decided to tow the Struma out of Turkish waters and into the Black Sea, where they left the inoperative ship and its passengers to rot with no fresh water, food, or fuel.

After just a few hours of drifting on February 24, 1942, a Russian ship torpedoed the Struma, killing all but one of the passengers on board.

On 23 February 1942 Turkish authorities boarded Struma. Her engine still did not work so they towed her back out into the Black Sea and cast her adrift about 10 miles off Istanbul. On the morning of 24 February the Soviet submarine Shch-213 torpedoed her. Struma sank quickly and many people were trapped below decks and drowned. 

Many others aboard survived the sinking and clung to pieces of wreckage, but for hours no rescue came and all but one of them died from drowning or hypothermia. Struma's First Officer clung to a piece of wreckage that was floating in the sea along with a 19-year-old refugee, David Stoliar. The officer died overnight but Turks in a rowing boat rescued Stoliar the next day: the only survivor of about 791 people who were aboard.

May their memories be a blessing.

And may their memories bruise the consciences of every man and woman who hates Jews. This is what Jew-haters are capable of. May God have mercy on their souls.