February 24, 1942
After being mistaken for an enemy ship, the SS Struma, carrying nearly 800 Jewish refugees hoping to reach Palestine, including 70 children, is sunk by a Russian submarine in the Black Sea.
On December 12, 1941, the ship left the Romanian port of Constanta on the Black Sea with 769 passengers bound for Istanbul, where the passengers planned to apply for visas for entry into Palestine.
The ship was a converted cattle transport used to move livestock along the Danube River. Originally intended to hold approximately 100 passengers, it was ill equipped for the voyage and lacked proper sanitary facilities. The Struma arrived in Istanbul on December 16 with great difficulty after its engines malfunctioned en route.
While the ship was anchored in the Istanbul harbor for nearly 10 weeks in need of repairs, the passengers were refused visas for Palestine or entry into Turkey. Appeals to British officials were refused.
On February 23, the Turkish authorities towed the ship into the Black Sea to send it back to Romania. The passengers resisted the Turkish police at first, but reinforcements arrived and herded the passengers into the lower decks. According to the only survivor, David Stoliar, the ship lacked a working engine, anchor, radio, food or water.
The sinking of the Struma the next day sparks outrage through the Jewish world, especially in Palestine, against British immigration restrictions under the 1939 White Paper.
The Struma was part of an operation known as HaMossad L’aliyah Bet (the Organization of Aliyah Bet, the illegal immigration of Jews into the Land of Israel), which oversaw the immigration of Jewish refugees from Europe in contravention of British restrictions. From 1934 to 1939, 50 Aliyah Bet missions brought 20,000 immigrants from Europe. World War II limited efforts, but full operations resumed in 1946 under the code name Bricha, meaning rescue. An office was set up in Paris, and special envoys were sent to displaced-persons camps to help bring survivors to Israel.
From 1946 to 1948, 64 missions brought 80,000 immigrants from Europe to the Land of Israel.
