Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project: "Forget You Not"™
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An honor guard soldier stands during a ceremony at a Jewish Cemetery in Bucharest, Romania next to a monument bearing the names of Romanian Jewish refugees killed in the 1942 voyage aboard the MV Struma. About 792 people drowned after the ship was struck by a Soviet torpedo. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)



The Sinking of Struma
(February 1942)
 

On December 12, 1941, the MV Struma sailed from Constanza in Romania with 769 immigrants aboard. The vessel, commissioned by the New Zionist Organization and the Irgun, was the last to leave Europe in wartime. The ship was actually an old cargo barge used to carry cattle along the Danube.

The objective was to anchor in Turkey, and from there to await certificates for Palestine. The small, unseaworthy ship sailed for three days, just making it to Istanbul before the engine died.

The Turkish authorities prevented the disembarkation of the passengers for fear that the British would not give them certificates and Turkey would be forced to give them refuge. The ship remained in Istanbul for 70 days. The British refused to grant permission for them to enter Palestine and the Turks would not let them repair the engine, disembark or remain in Turkey. The only food and water available for the passengers was provided by the local Jewish community.

Despite the despairing appeals of the captain that the ship was unable to continue on its way, the Turkish authorities sent the ship back to the Black Sea on February 23, 1942. On the following day a mighty explosion was heard and the ship went down. Much later it was determined the ship had been sunk by a torpedo from the Soviet submarine Shch-213. Only one passenger, the 19-year old David Stoliar, survived and eventually reached Palestine. Among the dead were 103 children.

Source: Jewish Virtual Library 


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