Some observations
on the  Struma disaster
By ass. prof. Esra Dancioglu
            One of the handicaps in Turkish Historiography seems to be that Turkey’s History tends to be constructed internally closed onto itself.  For this reason, for layman in Turkey, the Holocaust, espionage affairs and rescue attempts during World War II are all tragedies experienced in remote geographies.  Istanbul can hardly be remembered as a “Real Casablanca” that Jewish refugees and those who escaped gas chambers tried to reach, where “Blood for Truck” bargains were made, and where spies from both Axis States and Allied Forces used to crown around.  However, this tendency has started to change in recent years with the growing public interest on the Struma tragedy and articles appearing in the Turkish press about the disaster.  One realises that Turkey was one of a few passes through which those escaping from Holocaust  attempted to flee Nazi-occupied and oppressed Europe.
            During turbulent years of World War II, 30-32 ships of different tonnage left  the harbours of the Black Sea carrying 20-25,000 Jewish refugees away to Palestine.  Three of them shared the same terrible fate: Salvador, with over 300 passengers sank off Silivri in Marmara Sea on December 12, 1940, Mefkure was sunk with over 300 passengers between Constanza and Istanbul in the summer of 1944, and Struma was also sunk with over 750 people on board in February 1942. Struma was a typically distinct tragedy in that it was sent to her gloomy fate before the very eyes of the civilised world following endless and desperate bargains, unlike the fates of Salvador and Mefkure that cruised to their tragedies coincidentally.
            That refugee trafficking during and before World War II was shaped by the British Politics which was based on imperialistic interest in the Middle East.  Turkey, as well as other Balkan States, was particularly subjected to British pressures for putting a halt to this traffic.  It was adopted as a major British Policy that refugee ships which cruised off to Palestine despite all kinds of hindrance, were disrupted in the Turkish Straits.  Turkey’s counter policy on this issue was to oppose such British demands with the principle that stemming the ships meant violation of the principle of Free Passage through the Straits under the Montreux Convention.  On the other hand, British demands were probably seen as interference with Turkish internal and foreign affairs.  In my opinion this Turkish policy was supposed to be changed partly, since the Turkish Republic was found responsible for the sinking of Salvador in the Marmara Sea after passing through Istanbul Strait under conditions similar to the Struma case, and faced being a shelter for the survivors of the disaster.  Accordingly, after the Salvador tragedy, T.M.Snow, head of the Refugee Section of British Foreign Office, points out that “there could have been no more opportune disaster from the point of view of stopping this refugee traffic (to British Mandatate Palestine).
            Before Struma left Constanza Harbour for Palestine with a total of 769 passengers and crew, the British Foreign Ministry had already started to put pressure upon the Turkish Government for preventing the ship from passing through the Straits.  During two and a half months in Istanbul,  Struma passengers experienced strict quarantine conditions without any contact with the outside world.  Diplomatic bargains and negotiations failed.  The British Government did not give passengers visas nor provide them with another vessel for them to move towards Palestine.  On the other hand, Turkish Officials did not allow them to disembark without a British Government visa and guarantee for transportation, nor offered any other solution.  On February 23, 1942, the ship was towed away to the Black Sea by Turkish towboats with her failing engine and helpless passengers on board.  The following morning the ship underwent an obscure explosion with no survivals but one.
            The data presented in Turkish Newspapers support the evidence by Jurgen Rohwer, a German researcher, that Struma was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine.  According to the Turkish press between the months December 1941 and February 1942, a number of Turkish boats, namely Yenice, Kaynakdere and Cankaya were attacked by unknown submarines in the Black Sea, very close the Istanbul.  Cankaya seems to be the most important case, since it was attacked and sunk 10-12 hours before Struma, in the same area.  In the interviews, the crew who were  able to leave the boat the right time announced that the attacker was a submarine.
            The most striking aspect of the Struma tragedy shaped by such complicated negotiations was that Turkey, England and partly Romania had no concept of the “right to live” in their angles of vision.  The tragic fate of Struma passengers was determined mainly by irrational and genociding Nazi ideology, as well as British politics. This tragic consequence was also partly shared by Romania, and by Turkey that decided to tug it away to the Black Sea.  Russia finally participated by attacking the ships in the Black Sea regardless of whether they were civil or not.
 June 2000