STRUMA – the biggest maritime civilian disaster of World War II. At the end of 1941, World War II reached its terrible stage.

At that time, the Germans murdered about 4,000 Jews in a Romanian city, and fear and panic broke out among Romanian Jews. Each of them was looking for whichever way to escape. They were powerless … Almost all of Europe was occupied by Hitler’s Germany. Turkey, due to the good relations with Hitler’s Germany, did not let Jews go through Turkey to Israel, yet many Jews were willing to do anything they could to save at least their children. So they read in a newspaper about a transatlantic ship belonging to a Greek company under Panamanian flag. In the advertisement there was deliberately used a photo of the Queen Mary. But the real ship was built around 1867, it measured 46 meters and was made of wood with a maximum capacity of 100 passengers.

STRUMA was nicknamed “Fat”!

 

 

The journey from Romanian port city of Constantia to Israel cost 1000, – USD. The Jews sold everything they had to get their children, and some of them even themselves, from Romania to Israel. The ship was dilapidated, in spite of that the Jews had no other choice but to get to Israel in that ship, it was their last hope. 769 passengers were packed on the ship with a maximum capacity of 100 people – and there was just one toilet! The only food for passengers was one orange, a few pistachio nuts and a little sugar and tea every three days. On the third day, the boat engine broke down and the captain collected everything the passengers had on them (valuable items made of gold) to repair the engine, and when the ship arrived in Istanbul, this time the engine cracked down and the ship was no longer capable of sailing.

Though the ship transmitted S.O.S., the Turkish coastal troops did not allow it to approach the harbor.
A young man, who was in good physical condition, tried to swim to the shore on one night, he managed to do so, but afterwards he was detained by the Coast Guard and taken back to the ship.

A that time, Simon Brod, a Jew living in Turkey succeeded in bribing some Turkish officials and they allowed him to go to the shore once every three days and bring some food to the ship. The food was paid by the Jews from the United States.

After 62 days, terrible for the people on board, England finally decided to take 28 children aged 11 to 16, but Turkey did not agree with that and did not allow the 28 children to leave the ship.

The Jews on the ship at the coast of Istanbul wrote on a white bed sheet: “Help women”. But they should not have done that, on that night 200 Turkish policemen rushed on the ship and not only teared the notice to pieces, but also beat them all into blood and locked them in the bottom part of the ship, in all the spaces available to shut them in so that they could not be seen on board of the ship. And they damaged the ship’s walls as much as they could, tied the boat behind their Turkish towboat and pulled it to the deep Black Sea, left the ship there and returned.
The ship of hope was waiting for its death in the waves of the Black Sea with 769 Jews aboard ….

We do not know exactly what happened there, according to the baseless, untrustworthy official statement of Turkey, a Soviet submarine reportedly sent a signal, and when it did not get any answer, the ship was considered an enemy ship and was shot down, but it was just – supposedly … that’s the version a’la Turkey ….
On February 24, 1942, the journey, that began on 14 December 1941, was finished at the bottom of the Black Sea. Of all 769 human souls, only one person, David Stoliar, was saved.

 

 

Before David was rescued – he described it in his memoirs – he wanted, in despair, to take a knife from his pocket and cut his arteries, but his cold fingers were not strong enough to open the pocket knife … he was 19 years old … and it is still unclear, how it could happen that there was a Turkish ship near there that rescued David because they believed he was a staff member …

At that time, and long time after, everyone blamed the Soviets, but they forgot about the fact that the then Prime Minister of Turkey Refik Saydam did not forget to report – in those fatal days for the 769 human souls – with the intention of gaining more favour in Hitler’s Germany: “Turkey will not provide help to unwanted people. This is our way, so we did not let them get off the ship in Istanbul “…..

For decades, no one in Turkey was allowed to write about this atrocity, or make research, or publish anythin. When the film company Umut Sanat (Art of Hope) wanted to shoot a film about it in 1990 – they did not get permission.
In 2000, an Englishman, Greg Buxton, a grandson of one of the ship’s staff, wanted to search for wrecks at the sea bottom but the Turks did not allow it!

A few years later, a company was finally given permission – apparently due to blatant bribes – and they really found some wracks of the ship in the depth of 70-80 m.. Only six miles away from the Turkish shore – that is, in the territorial waters….

David Stoliar, who, thanks to the superhuman effort of Simon Brod, was allowed to stay in Turkey for a short time, then he illegally got across Syria to Israel, entered the British army, fought against he Nazis, and after the war he left for Oregon, the United States. He walked across Syria to Israel barefoot, and so, after many years, he founded a shoe factory in Oregon and became incredibly rich. In 2001, he arrived in Turkey, found the man who saved his life by mistake and rewarded him. He died at the age of 91 only three years ago….