Doomed from the Start
By Alan and Adam Guggenheim
Shortly after noon on 23 February 1942, 80 Turkish policemen, with truncheons raised, stormed on board the Struma , an old, rickety, retrofitted cattle barge packed with 791 passengers and crew. 1 The police scuffled with some of the hotheaded passengers and cut the anchor chain of the hapless vessel. They secured lines to the Turkish military tugboat Aldemar , while passengers wailed from below deck. On shore, bystanders at Istanbul's Tophane landing, opposite the Struma 's anchorage, saw passengers drape from the ship railings painted shirts and sheets that read "Jewish Immigrants," "SOS," and "Save Us." 2
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