Turkey commemorates Jewish refugees who died in Struma disaster

Turkey on Friday commemorated the Jewish victims of the World War II tragedy which remains a dark chapter in the country's persistent neutrality during the war. State officials and members of the Jewish community in Istanbul left flowers at sea in memory of the 768 refugees. Refugees were fleeing the Nazis when Struma, the vessel carrying them, was torpedoed off the city's shores. A rabbi and a chazzan recited the "kadish," a prayer recited for the deceased, while Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin and Jewish community leaders made speeches in memory of victims.

Struma had left Kosije, Romania, in 1941 and was full of Jews fleeing to the Palestinian territories. It broke down near Istanbul and was anchored off the coast of Sarayburnu on Dec. 15, 1941. Upon pressure from Britain, which restricted Jewish access to the Palestinian territories, the Turkish government diverted the ship's route although it allowed some passengers to leave the vessel. Romania turned down a request to readmit the ship. After resting for 70 days off the coast of Sarayburnu, the ship was towed to the coast of Şile and within hours a Soviet submarine blocking access to the Black Sea at the time torpedoed the vessel. Among the victims were 103 children while only one person, David Stoliar, a 20-year-old man, survived.

Though the Turkish administration at the time was partly blamed for the Struma disaster as it distanced itself away from the plight of Jews in an effort to keep its neutrality during the war, the country is also credited with reaching out to Jews fleeing the Nazi regime. In the 1930s, Turkey received more than 130 academics fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany, and those academics are known for their pioneering contributions to science in the country. The Holocaust is also known in Turkey for the efforts of a Turkish diplomat, Selahattin Ülkümen. Ülkümen, the Turkish consul general on the Greek island of Rhodes, who is credited with saving 42 Jewish families who were to be sent to concentration camps in Europe by confronting the officer commanding the Nazi forces that were taking over the island and convincing him to release the Jewish Turks on the island. Ülkümen issued Turkish passports to the Jews for their safe passage to Turkey.