(Jewish Group) Romanian officials commemorate Holocaust refugees who perished in Struma sinking
Romanian officials for the first time commemorated the victims of the sinking 80 years ago of the Struma, a ship that carried hundreds of Holocaust refugees from Romania.
The ceremony Tuesday took place in the coastal city of Constanţa in southern Romania, from which the ship set sail in 1941 with 770 refugees, including more than 100 children, aboard.
In 1942, a Red Army submarine mistook the Struma for a hostile vessel after Turkish authorities towed it away from its dock in Istanbul and left it in international waters without a working engine or an anchor. The sub torpedoed the ship, leaving only one survivor.
During the ceremony, which was attended by about 80 people, Romanian Rear Admiral Mihai Panait, who is the top commander of the country’s navy, and Florin Goidea, the director of the Constanţa Port, laid wreaths on the waters beside the dock from which the Struma set sail.
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