posted
Two Sundays ago, in the New Jersey Star-Ledger, I read a story about the sinking of a ship called the Struma on February 24, 1942 in the Black Sea. The Struma was a converted cattle boat that was being used to transport Jewish refugees from Nazi-dominated Romania to Palestine. It left the port of Constanza in December, 1941, but broke down in the Black Sea. It was towed into the port of Istanbul, where it sat for almost two months. Finally, the Turkish authorities had it towed back out into the Black Sea, beyond their territorial waters, where the next morning it was torpedoed and sunk by a Russian submarine. Although there were more than a hundred survivors in the water, the Turkish authorities didn't send out any rescue vessels until the next day. Of the 769 refugees and 10 crew members aboard, only one survived. The article in the Star-Ledger centered around this one survivor, who is till alive and living in Bend, Oregon. I have not been able to find a web link to the Star-Ledger article, but here are some links to other sites:
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