779 left to die
The silence of the chill night air was broken only by the sobbing of children as the stricken ship crammed with refugees drifted helplessly on the tide. Callously cast adrift in the Black Sea with no engine and no anchor, the 779 souls aboard the Struma could only pray for deliverance.
'We would like to bring up some artefacts for exhibits around the world so that people will remember those who died on the Struma.' He added; 'The team of divers we have are the best in the world. They've een dancing for many years and have pioneered the techniques for deep wreck diving. I am confident that we'll succeed'. In 1941 the Struma was advertised as a suitable vessel for the journey to Palestine and the refugees paid hefty fees to hire the boat. As she was towed away, sheets with 'SAVE US' written on them were hung over the sides and the passengers cries could clearly be heard from the shore. Thanks is due to Lucy Dawson for bringing this to the public.
The Struma
Then, at first light, as officials ashore continued to argue over who was responsible for the refugees' fate, a single torpedo from a Russian submarine tore into the 160ft ship's hull.
In all, 103 children, 269 women and 406 men perished - mostly Romanian and Russian Jews fleeing facist persecution.
There was just a single survivor from what was one of the most shameful yet least documented episodes of World War II.
Now a team of British divers, led by a man whose grandparents (pictured), died in the carnage, is setting out to locate the wreck in an attempt to highlight the forgotten tragedy.
The expedition by the Starfish Diving Team, which was co-founded by Christina Campbell from Edinburgh, is also hoping to recover artefacts which will form a permanent memorial to those who drowned.
'It's a really tragic story,' said 36-year-old Christina. 'And it's a story that deserves exploring. Everyone in the group feels privileged to be involved.'
The dive leader is Greg Buxton, a 35-year-old data analyst from London whose grandparents were among those killed when the Struma sank on February 23, 1942. 'It's something I have been thinking about over the years and I'd like the chance to lay some ghosts to rest, to visit my grandparents if you like.' said Mr Buxton.
The Starfish Team will be working in conjunction with divers from a Turkish underwater research group.The expedition, due to take place in August 2000, will be the culmination of two years of planning by Mr Buxton and the team.
His grandparents Grigori Bucspan, 54, and his wife Enta, 51, were Russian Jews who had been kiving in Bucharest after fleeing Russia in 1918 to escape the Bolsheviks.
In 1941 they had to flee again, this time from the Iron Guard. Their son Michael, who arrived in Britain in 1935 to study engineering, was 25 years old when he heard the news that his parents had been killed. After the war he changed his name to Buxton and became a British national.
'My father had various letters from his father. He knew that they planned to leave Romania for Palestine,' said Mr Buxton.
There were more than a million Jews living in Romania before World War II and around three quarters were killed.
'Although the Romanian holocaust isn't as well remembered, it was very similar to the situation in Germany, although there weren't death camps as such,' added Mr Buxton. 'Many people tried to flee Romania, often trying to enter Palestine which was under British administation and allowed limited Jewish settlement.'
When the refugees reached Constanta on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea, many were shocked when they saw the size of their vessel and the number of passengers getting aboard.
Conditions were so cramped that most of their baggage had to be left behind. There was little in the way of sanitation and bunks were stacked eight to ten high.
But the refugees were desperate to find salvation in their promised land, and on December 11 they set sail for Palestine.
From the start things went wrong on the doomed voyage. Just a few miles out of port the engine failed. The Captain of a passing tug boat agreed to fix it for a fee - the wedding rings of the women, which was all the refugees had left of value.
Over the next three days the Struma limped her way closer to neutral Turkey, the engine finally failing for good close to a mine-field at the entrance to the Bosphorous.
A tug towed the Struma into the port of Istanbul where the passengers were impounded by the Turkish authorities in the outer harbour.
Then the long argument over their fate began. The Turks did not want to offer sanctuary to any more Jewish refugees because they were trying to remain neutral and resources were already stretched.
At the same time, the British High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Harold MacMichael, refused to issue them with entry permits.
Despite pleas from the British Ambassador in Turkey and pressure from Jewish communities around the world, Sir Harold would not budge.
For 70 days the Struma lay in Istanbul with conditions ever worsening. There was little fresh food or water and it was so cramped that passengers could only spend one hour a day each on deck.
The deadlock was broken on February 23, 1942, when the Turkish police overwhelmed the passengers and took control of the ship. They cut Struma's anchor chains and towed her out to sea even though she still had no functioning engine or even an anchor.
She was abandoned seven miles offshore and at first light next morning a Russian submarine surfaced and fired a single torpedo.
She sank instantly in nearly 300ft of water, and even though the blast could be heard from shore no rescue boats came.
Mr Buxton said; 'When the ship first sank there were many people swimming in the water. David Stolier, the sole survivor, (pictured left), was only seventeen or eighteen years old and very fit so he managed to get himself on to floating wreckage. He says he was wearing a big heavy coat which kept out the wind a bit. It was about twenty hours later that a rowing boat from a local lighthouse came out looking for survivors. David was very lucky to be found. He was taken to hospital and later helped to reach Palestine. He fought for the British in the war and eventually moved to America where he now lives with his wife in Oregon.'
Mr Stoliar became an engineer after the war and worked in the oil industry. Now 75, he is retired but helps his son run a travel agency business.
The events of 1942 are still deeply etched in his memory. He recalls the fear of the passengers as they were cut adrift by police. 'We did not understand at all but they left and we were now floating fairly close to the shore because we could hear noises from the shore.' said Mr Stoliar.
'Of course we were worried about mines, we were worried about everything, but where do we go without an engine? Morning came and then of course you have a big bang and the whole thing blows up. I was projected way up in the air, suddenly. I was in the air and then I was in the water.'
He remembers hundreds of others around him, still alive at that time, swimming and yelling for help in the calm but cold water. Slowly, as the day wore on and no help came, they succumbed one by one to the cold and exhaustion and drowned. The next morning he was the only one left alive, sitting on a piece of wreckage.
'I thought I was going to die from drowning and I was not looking forward to that kind of death' he remembers. 'So I was contemplating cutting my veins or something that is a quick death.' Then, when all hope seemed lost, he was rescued by men from a local lighthouse and taken back to Istanbul.
Mr Buxton's father told him the story of the Struma as he grew up and the significance of it has stayed with him. 'It's not that we lived in the past or anything, but we did talk about it,' said Mr Buxton. 'My father has kept all the correspondence and papers from my grandparents.'Over the years Mr Buxton became more and more interested in finding the wreck of the Struma. 'I found the Internet to be one of the most powerful things around and I started digging for information on the Struma and eventually found a passenger list for the boat.' he said. 'The guy who wrote the list put me on the trail of Mr Stolier, who was somewhere in America. I wrote to everyone in America with a similar sounding name and found him. He was very enthusiastic about the project. He talked to the U.S. memorial Holocaust museum in Washington and I went to meet them. They agreed to part fund the project and are keen for us to recover some of the personal artefacts to put in an exhibition.'
It is of concern to some that the team of divers will be taking items from a wreck which is essentially a mass grave. But Mr Buxton believes that the artefacts will provide a fitting and lasting memorial to those who died.
He said; 'The best way to get things to stick in people's minds is through physical objects. If we can find a small piece of luggage, or a shoe or that sort of thing, it will be significant to people.
The divers, who are all paying their own costs, believe they have an accurate location for the wreck after lengthy investigations into Russian submarine records and other contemporary documents. The expedition will take four weeks.
Mr Buxton added; 'We have two weeks of detailed survey work, two weeks of intense diving and at the end of that we are going to have a commemorative service in Istanbul on August 27. David Stoliar will be attending the ceremony and hopefully visiting the site of the wreck.'
The search is also being filmed for a television documentary which the team hope will help to highlight the story that many tried to forget.
