Posted on 02/22/2018 9:55:17 PM PST by Texas Fossil
In 1942, a Soviet submarine in the Black Sea torpedoed and sank the Struma, a ship filled with almost 800 Jewish refugees headed from Romania to the Holy Land. David Stoliar, the lone survivor, agreed to share his story with SPIEGEL ONLINE.
David Stoliar's neat house sits atop a hill on the edge of Bend, a small city in central Oregon. A few steps lead up to the front door. Stoliar's wife, Marda, opens, followed by a happy beagle. "Come in," she says cheerfully. "Come in."
Her husband is waiting in the living room, surrounded by souvenirs and family photos. Stoliar, his light-blue eyes twinkling, appears much younger than 90. He laughs, chats about the weather, mentions the road conditions up on nearby Mount Hood. He's making small talk, obviously, to avoid the actual topic of this visit.
David Stoliar needs time to bring his thoughts -- and himself -- all the way back to that night. He's actually never discussed it before with a German reporter. "Nobody has asked me," he says with a shrug, adding emphatically that, after this meeting, he won't ever speak of it again -- with no one, no matter what or where they're from.
"Not a good memory," Stoliar states matter-of-factly. "I just want to finish my life in peace."
But memories, of course, can't be dismissed so easily. Especially these memories. The explosion, catapulting him into the water. The screams of the others, fading slowly. The wait for his own certain death on that icy night at sea.
Stoliar's story has always been a taboo of sorts. His ordeal illuminates a forgotten, inconvenient chapter of the Holocaust, which the then-Allies would rather not be reminded of. For, if anything, they chose to look the other way -- before, during and after.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
On February 23, 1942, policemen stormed the Struma, cut the anchor chain, tugged the ship back into the Black Sea and set it helplessly adrift.
Early the next day it was sunk by a Russian torpedo. There was ultimately only 1 survivor.
When I think of the current brutality of Turkey now in Efrin, it makes me wonder what was learned from WWII.
ping
Russians are bastards.
For sinking a ship in Nazi controlled waters?
Turkey was supplying Germany with war materiel straight until spring, 1944.
If you understand 1942 dynamics and put yourself in a Russian skipper’s shoes you’d sink any vessel you’d find North of Turkish coast assuming it is a traffic between Turkey and (Nazi-held) Romania.
Read about it. European Jews fleeing the nazis made it to Istanbul, enroute to British Palestine. The Brits caused the Turks to refuse it passage through the Bosphorus. They were stranded there for about 2 weeks and the Brits finally decided to honor a handful of visas but to refuse the rest.
The Turks assaulted the ship as it sat with no power. The Turks cut the anchor chain and towed them 10 miles out into the Black Sea and set them adrift.
Soviet subs were attacking all non-allied shipping coming out of the straights. The Battle of Sevastopol was raging and they Soviets had just conducted an amphibious landing in Crimea.
Sinking any non-allied shipping coming out of that chokepoint was smart.
So Jews, fleeing nazis, were screwed by Brits, abandoned in a torpedo alley by Turks, where they were sunk by Soviets, thinking they were interdicting nazi supplying shipping. In this one I’d rate bastardhood with nazis at top, Brits an Turks tied for second and third, and some soviet sub captain a close 4th.
War sucks.
The last thing you could expect to see in a Black Sea in 1942 is a Jewish refugee ship. Any non-Soviet shipping were basically Turks bringing supplies to their Nazi buddies.
Amazing hadn’t ever even heard of this. In terms of WWII this was a minor story. It’s astonishing that things of this magnitude wouldn’t even make the paper back then. Just another ship sunk; happened every day.
Yeah and the Russians were chummy with the Germans right up till June 22, 1941. They’re still bastards.
Russian Commie, German Nazis. Two scorpions in a bottle. Who do you root for?
Maybe so. But the Russians were targeting all neutral ships, not refugee liners.
The real bastards with respect to Jewish war refugees are the British who threw up every obstacle in the path of Jews who sought refuge in the Levant.
Why? As the article says, the British didn't want to stir up the "Arab street", that pesky tantrum throwing "Arab street". God forbid anyone do anything to stir up the "Arab street".
That sentiment combined with the barely concealed antisemitism of the British diplomatic corp sealed the fate of not only those refugees but hundreds of thousands others.
Why did he survive? He is a witness. That’s why.
Ain’t that funny, today we have a “Muslim street” phobia.
The sub could see that it was filled with people, not soldiers but true to style, they torpedoed it anyway.
Another tragic ship story. My late friend Bill Steiner(who lived in Vienna, fought the Nazi thugs in the streets and eventually came to America, only to be sent back c/o the US Army to Europe to fight the Germans), got a ticket on a US-bound ship out of Marseilles ?, and gave it to his sister so that she could escape.
The ship landed and got stuck in Yugoslavia where all 800+ Jews passengers, including his sister, were executed by the Nazis.
He later went to Palestine and served in the new Israeli army, the Haganah in the fight for the creation of Israel.
“” “” The sub could see that it was filled with people, not soldiers but true to style, they torpedoed it anyway.”” “”
Target identification wasn’t an easy task for submarine warfare in WWII especially in hostile waters. All they knew there were no Allied traffic in the area. It was enough to fire on a ship without taking risk of being sunk themselves upon attempt to investigate.
An incredible tragedy, and one that has been missed in all of
the tragedy coming from World War II.
Well, you know the old Pollock joke. If Poland is invaded by Germans and Russians, who do you shoot first?
The German of course, business before pleasure.
Very true.
More than a few allied servicemen were killed when the hell ships transporting them towards Japan were sunk.
For “Arab Street”, substitute “source of oil” and you get to the true reason.
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