The SS Struma-A Forgotten Tale of Woe from World War II

In an effort to avoid the increasing depredations of the fascist Iron Guard in Romania, The SS Struma was charted in December of 1941 by a group of desperate Jews seeking a safe haven in Palestine. Promised legal entry into that area, some 769 people, including 269 women and 103 children, they were charged exorbitant sums for a spot on a boat they were not permitted to see until they departed.

The ship, Greek owned though flying under a Panamanian flag, was not seaworthy. Told that they would be traveling on a renovated ship, they found themselves forced to board an ancient cattle barge with one bathroom and no kitchen, and no room to sit up in the "berths" on the lower deck. The very engine that was to take it to Istanbul had been recovered from a wreck at the bottom of the Danube.

Though the engine broke down repeatedly, they were able to reach Istanbul in three days. However, they discovered that there were no Palestine Immigration Certificates to permit them entry into Palestine-it was just a ploy to jack up the price of tickets on the boat. The Turks would not permit them to disembark, and they were towed to a quarantine area deep in the harbor. The only food they were allowed to receive was that donated by the Istanbul Jewish community, and that only once a week.

They were contained on that ship for ten weeks under terrible stress while the British and the Turks argued about who was responsible for their fate. The British were adamant that no refugees were to be allowed to enter Palestine, as this would set a precedent they were unwilling to allow. Meanwhile, the Turks refused to allow them to disembark, and Romania refused to allow them to return. The choice was either to send them by train to Haifa or tow them back to the Black Sea. The British ambassador waffled in his discomfort about telling the Turks what his government insisted that they do, which was under no circumstances to allow them to disembark. The Turks set a deadline for a resolution, and when that passed, they towed the now inoperable ship 10 miles out to the Black Sea, without food, fuel or provisions, where it was left to drift with the winds.

The next day an explosion shook the ship and all the passengers were lost, except one young man who lost his entire family and was rescued the next day when a rowboat from one of the Turkish watchtowers was sent finally to look for survivors. It turns out that a Russian submarine, under secret orders to sink all Axis and neutral ships, had torpedoed the ship. This was the greatest loss of civilian life in one sinking during the entire course of the war.

In the aftermath of the sinking, Lord Wedgwood, in his opening remarks before the British House of Lords, stated with bitterness that "I hope yet to live to see those who sent the Struma cargo back to the Nazis hung as high as Haman cheek by jowl with their prototype and F hrer, Adolf Hitler". However, there was no redress for these victims, either in the House of Lords or anywhere else. Their fate mirrored that of the Jews they left behind, and reflected all too well the words of Giuseppe Mazzini, the Italian patriot, philosopher, and politician: "Without a country of your own, you have neither name, nor voice, nor rights nor admission as brothers into the fellowship of peoples. You are bastards of humanity."

Larry Isaacson is Vice President of Haskell New York Inc., and contributing author for http://www.officesalesusa.com. See Haskell online for discount office supplies, office storage cabinets and custom printing.