Payback time for Edom? The timing sure is uncanny, Hashem is avenging the blood of His servants..... At least these ones got off cheap; and see with what solicitude they are being treated by the world!

Costa Allegra, left for 3 days without electricity, toilets, etc. in the stifling heat; many Italians, British and Americans on board

 Costa Concordia off the coast of Rome - we all know the story - many dead and injured

Sent by C. Thank you.

Another Tack: Lessons from the floating coffin

Sarah Honig - The Jerusalem Post,  February 23rd, 2012

Exactly 70 years ago – on February 24, 1942 – 19-year-old David Stoliar terrifyingly clung to bobbing debris in the Black Sea. At first he heard screams in the frigid waters but the voices died down. It eventually emerged that Stoliar was the sole survivor of the Struma, an un-seaworthy vessel chuck-full of frantic Jewish refugees.
World War II was already in fever pitch. Against the enormity of the then-unfolding Holocaust, the loss at sea of 768 Jewish lives (103 of them babies and children) was at most blithely overlooked as a marginal annotation.
Moreover, although these Jews fled the Nazis, in the pedantic literal sense they weren’t executed by Third Reich henchmen.
This atrocity was the coldblooded handiwork of Great Britain (committed while it combated the Germans but remarkably without compassion for their Jewish victims), supposedly neutral Turkey (whose so-called nonalignment didn’t extend to outcast Jewish refugees), by the Arabs (who were openly and unreservedly Nazism’s avid collaborators and who pressured London into denying endangered Jews asylum in the Jewish homeland) and, finally, by the Russians (who targeted the immobilized sardine can that carried Jews to whom nobody would allow a toehold on terra firma).
The entire world seemed united in signaling Jews how utterly unwanted they were anywhere.
Such apathy-cum-enmity hasn’t disappeared. Only its form and context has mutated but the essence is still ultra-relevant to the Jewish state. We’re still threatened with annihilation. Nonetheless, unmistakable harangues from Tehran notwithstanding, the international community worries about an Israeli preemptive strike – not a genocidal strike against Israel.
To put it plainly, our fate today interests other nations just about as much as the fate of the Struma’s Jews did back then, which (to resort to understatement) was hardly much.
Today’s disingenuous post-Holocaust lip-service is invariably accompanied by hand-wringing about lack of foreknowledge of Germany’s fiendish plot to systematically exterminate the defenseless Jewish people (unmistakable harangues from Berlin notwithstanding).
What sets the Struma apart and imbues it with extraordinary significance is that from December 16, 1941, until the afternoon of February 23, 1942, its ordeal was played out before the entire watching but unfeeling world. No country could deny awareness of the impending calamity and yet all countries let it happen in full view.
The Struma, then a 115-year-old Danube cattle barge, was a pitiful peanut-shell of a boat packed with nearly 800 refugees from Romania. Bound for the Land of Israel, they desperately fled Hitler’s hell and the horrors of Bucharest’s fascist regime. Pogroms and ghastly atrocities had already sullied cities like Iasi, where thousands of Jews were assembled in the market square and mowed down with machine guns. Venerable old rabbis and Jewish community leaders were impaled on meat hooks in town centers.
The Struma wasn’t struck suddenly. It was slowly tortured, accentuating with demonic deliberation how disposable Jews were, just when genocide’s monstrous machinery was switched into high gear. This 75-day shipboard melodrama underscored the total helplessness and humiliation of Jews without power.
Struma passengers gathered in the Romanian port of Constanza on December 8, 1941. For four days, Romanian customs officials “examined” their belongings. In fact, they pilfered all they saw – clothing, underwear, jewelry and most important, food. The immigrants left on the perilous journey bereft of provisions and medications. But the Struma did carry 30 doctors, 10 engineers and 15 lawyers.
On December 12, the rickety vessel chugged out to sea. After four hair-raising days (instead of the routine 14 hours) the Struma unsteadily dragged itself into Istanbul Harbor. It couldn’t continue. Its makeshift motor had sputtered its last. There was no fuel, food or water.
Several passengers held valid entry visas into pre-independent Israel. All others were “illegals”. The hope, though, was that once in Turkey, they’d all be allowed to proceed to their destination. After all, with Europe in the throes of war, thousands of Jewish immigration certificates (British Mandate permits) remained unutilized.
But the British authorities refused unequivocally. The Arabs raged and rallied against giving haven to Jewish refugees. Eager to appease pro- Nazi Arab opinion, Britain chillingly declared that under no circumstance could the Struma’s human cargo set foot in Eretz Yisrael.
Furthermore, Britain pressured Turkey not to let anyone off the crippled boat at its end either. Obligingly, the Turkish premier argued that “Turkey cannot be expected to serve as a refuge or surrogate homeland for people unwanted anywhere else”.
Thus hundreds were imprisoned in narrow, unventilated confines. A sign saying “Help!” was suspended over the Struma’s side. One of the visa-holders, who after weeks was allowed ashore, described the boat as a “floating coffin”.
The freezing hull below reeked, but there wasn’t sufficient room on deck. Refugees took turns to climb up for a breath of air. There was no sleeping space for all, no infirmary, no galley, no bathing or sanitary facilities. Minimal food rations, provided by local Jews, were smuggled aboard after enough Turkish palms were greased.
An official Jewish Agency appeal, forwarded to the British on January 19, 1942, stressed that the Struma transported refugees escaping the most tangible threat of massacre. The Mandatory authorities didn’t even dignify the Jewish Agency with a reply.
On the next day, the Struma’s 35th in Istanbul, the Wannsee Conference opened in suburban Berlin to formally decide on “the final solution for the Jewish problem”. Hitler surely hadn’t overlooked this latest demonstration of utter callousness toward hapless Jews.
The British didn’t bother to answer ensuing emotional Jewish Agency entreaties on January 30 and February 10. Then they acquiesced to the entry of four visa-holders, who only at this point were permitted to disembark. More news of the dreadful conditions on the Struma now came out.
The new British line was that the Struma’s refugees were suspect Nazi agents because they came from enemy territory. The assertion that the Germans’ most hideously persecuted victims were their tormenters’ spies was labeled “Satanic” in embryonic Israel.
In a very long February 13 communication to the Mandatory government, the Agency noted that Britain was helping with much fanfare to resettle in the Mideast thousands of non-Jews – Greeks, Yugoslavs, Poles and Czechs – all of whom came from German-controlled areas. More than any of them, Jews had reason to be loyal to the Allies.
On February 15, the British announced they’d make an exception in the case of Struma children aged 11 to 16. Wartime rationing was cited as the pretext for barring younger or older kids. The Jewish Agency guaranteed maintenance for all 103 underage Struma captives. In the end no child was freed.
Meanwhile, Turkey, egged on and emboldened by Britain, threatened to tow the floundering deathtrap beyond its territorial waters. The Jewish Agency warned that “the boat is in total state of disrepair and without life-saving equipment. Any sea-journey for this vessel cannot but end in disaster.”
The Turkish government, however, pitilessly ordered the condemned Struma tugged out to the Black Sea. Hundreds of truncheon-wielding Turkish policemen were dispatched to the Struma on February 23. They viciously clubbed passengers below deck. Despite resistance from the refugees, the anchor was cut, the Struma was towed out and was left paralyzed, to drift precariously without supplies or a drop of fuel.
On February 24, an explosion ripped it apart.
A Soviet submarine, Shchuka-213, patrolled northeast of the Bosporus. Stalking Axis craft, it torpedoed the wobbly barge, which sank in minutes. It’s estimated that as many as 500 were killed outright by the blast. The rest flapped feebly in the waves, till they expired of wounds, fatigue and hypothermia. Stoliar alone hung on, semi-conscious.
In pre-state Israel there was shock and grief. Demonstrations were mounted. For one day all work and commerce were halted and the population imposed a voluntary protest curfew on itself. Posters appeared on exterior walls everywhere bearing British High Commissioner Harold Mac Michael’s photo and announcing that he was “Wanted for Murder”.
The Struma’s heartrending end marked the effective end to most attempts to break Britain’s anti-Jewish blockade until the conclusion of WWII. A few fishing and sporting sailboats briefly tried to ferry handfuls of refugees. Some of them were sunk. Europe’s Jews had no escape left. Embattled Britain took time out from the war to make sure of it.
Stoliar was imprisoned by the Turks for six weeks for the crime of not drowning. He was finally allowed into Mandated Palestine despite Mac Michael’s warnings that “this would open the floodgates” and “completely undermine our whole policy regarding illegal immigrants.”
Today, to most Israelis, Struma is a curious street name in a few towns. Israeli school children barely encounter its esoteric story. Politically correct authors and trendy leftwing filmmakers shun the subject, preferring postmodern portrayals of Arab terrorists as Zionism’s prey.
Oblivion is perhaps the greatest sin against the Struma but also against ourselves. If we forget the Struma, we forget why this country exists, why we struggle for its survival. We forget the justice of our cause.
Dimmed memory and self-destructive perverse morality hinder our ability to protect ourselves from the offspring and torchbearers of the very Arabs who doomed the Struma. They haven’t amended their hostile agenda. We just don’t care to be reminded.
The state the Jews created is threatened with destruction and its population with obliteration. Yet there’s negligible sympathy for Israel and even less practical support to avert tragedy. The Struma’s story is seminal in understanding why the Holocaust was possible and why a second Holocaust cannot be ruled out. More than anything, the Struma powerfully illustrates what happens when Jews rely on others’ goodwill.

 And thanks to A.M.

Turkey: Istanbul Remembers WWII Jewish Refugee Tragedy

by David Trilling in Eurasianet, New York, N.Y., USA, February 24,2012

When he first arrived in what was, back then, British-occupied Palestine, no one was especially interested in hearing David Stoliar's astonishing story, even though he was the sole survivor of the sinking of the SS Struma, a rusting steamer with almost 800 Jewish refugees aboard when it was torpedoed off the Turkish coast.

February 24 marks the 70th anniversary of the Struma tragedy. To commemorate it, a small group of local activists held a minute of silence at Sarayburnu Point, overlooking the waters at the mouth of Istanbul's Golden Horn, where the Struma was once moored.

Stoliar, speaking by telephone from his home in Oregon, recalled that in the midst of war, to many people the Struma sinking didn't seem like a particularly noteworthy event. "When you have millions of people who died in those times, what is 800? It is insignificant. How can this be important," Stoliar said. It was only after the war that the Struma's story gained wider recognition, helping to galvanize efforts to create the Jewish state of Israel in the late 1940s.

In 1942, 19-year-old Stoliar was a Jewish refugee fleeing Nazi Germany-aligned Romania when his ship, a retrofitted Bulgarian coking coal carrier, broke down in Turkish waters en route to Palestine. With only a broken auxiliary motor, the ship was quarantined by Turkish authorities at Sarayburnu Point.

The almost 800 Eastern European Jews, mostly women and children, who were aboard the Struma were virtual prisoners for almost three months while the Allies and neutral Turkey debated their fate. London lobbied Turkish officials to prevent their onward passage, fearing that letting the refugees settle in Palestine would anger both local Arabs and neutral Arab oil producers, who could join the Axis in protest. Turkish officials, meanwhile, were determined not to give asylum to the Struma's passengers. Not only was Turkey straining to accommodate those who had already found refuge in the country, officials worried that accepting the Struma's passengers might jeopardize Turkey's neutral status.

For 10 weeks, locals brought the passengers – who had set out for a journey that should have lasted five days – food, fresh water and medicine. "The boat was so packed that not everybody could go on deck; we had to go up for air in shifts so it didn't capsize," said Stoliar. When asked why he never simply tried to jump ship and swim to shore, Stoliar answered: "It was extremely cold, and we had [Turkish] policemen on board the ship all the time."

Finally, on February 23, Turkish authorities cut the ship's mooring and dragged her back through the Bosporus straits into the Black Sea where, without food, water, or a working engine, the Struma was set adrift.  Hours later, early on February 24, there was an explosion. "We expected the worst anyway. Being left in the open sea with no food, no water, no engine, no fuel, nothing, we felt the end was coming anyway. So at least I was not surprised. I was just sorry," says Stoliar.

Citing records in Moscow, historians have concluded that it was a Soviet submarine that torpedoed the Struma, possibly mistaking it for an Axis shipping vessel. Stoliar believes the Allies may have conspired with the Turks. It took Turkey 24 hours to launch a rescue effort. After he was picked up, clinging to a piece of debris, Stoliar was held for two months and then granted a visa to Palestine. Once there, he served first in the British army, and later in the Israeli army during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Turkey, Russia and Great Britain have not expressed any official regrets about the fate of the ship and its passengers. At the February 24 commemorative ceremony in Istanbul, a leader of Istanbul's Jewish community called on Ankara to issue an official apology.

Industrialist Ishak Alaton, who, as a 15-year-old boy, helped carry food and medicine to Struma passengers, said the Turkish government's refusal to apologize is "demeaning."

"The Turkish people should be aware of the sins of the past and they should have the courage to ask their politicians to become human beings and ask for forgiveness officially," he told gathered journalists. Rifat Bali, an Istanbul-based historian who has written extensively on Turkish Jewry, says the Struma tragedy did not directly affect Turkey's small Jewish population, but he doubts the Turkish government would consider apologizing "because they do not consider themselves responsible for this tragedy."

For Stoliar, now 89, an apology today – from the British or the Turks or the Russians – would be "ridiculous." It's been 70 years, he says, and those responsible for the tragedy are long gone. "You apologize for something you've done, not what your father has done or your grandfather has done," he argues. "That has no meaning. You ask an apology from a person that feels responsible for something. But none of the present generation is responsible for what happened seventy years ago."

Passengers leave disabled ship in Seychelles port

By JASON STRAZIUSO | Associated Press – 1 hr 44 mins ago

   

• The Costa Allegra Cruise ship, is towed in the Victoria's harbor, Seychelles Island, …
• Passengers look out from the Costa Allegra cruise ship as it is towed in the Victoria's …

VICTORIA, Seychelles (AP) — Hot and tired passengers disembarking from a disabled cruise ship Thursday in the Seychelles said they had prepared to abandon ship when fire broke out in the engine room three days ago, leaving the vessel adrift in waters prowled by pirates.

Life boats were even lowered, passengers said. Austrian Thomas Foaller said some passengers began to panic. Couples that were separated were calling out to each other, he said.
Among them were American couple Gordon and Eleanor Bradwell of Athens, Georgia. They were separated when Eleanor went to the couple's room to get a life vest. A crew member had handed the 72-year-old Gordon his own.
But the fire that broke out Monday was brought under control and the more than 1,000 people wound up staying aboard the Costa Allegra, which suddenly had no engine power, no air conditioning and no running water for showers or toilets.
Eleanor Bradwell said that the initial response to the alarm seemed to be disorganized but overall she and her husband felt the shipping line had handled the emergency well.
"It could have been worse than it was," said Gordon Bradwell. "It could have been disastrous ... we're here, we're alive."
The couple ate cold sandwiches for three days and moved their bedding onto the deck to escape the stifling heat after the fire left the Costa Allegra without power.
"The toilets were running over, there was no electricity. It was very hot," said Eleanor Bradwell.
The couple said they realized the alarm must be real when it went off on Monday because they had already done the drill. When the fire first broke out, passengers were directed to put on their life jackets and go to stations on the deck, they said. Life boats were lowered but no one got in after the fire was contained.
Dozens of officials flocked to the port Thursday to help passengers ashore, a couple of whom applauded as the ship approached land.
The Seychelles Red Cross set up tents to assist any passengers needing medical help and embassy and consular officials were at the port to receive their citizens. Tour operators lined up dozens of buses to take passengers to either the airport or a Seychelles resort. Disembarkation of the more than 1,000 people onboard was expected to take several hours.
The cause of the fire is unknown. A French fishing vessel towed the cruise ship to the Seychelles.
U.S. Consular Agent Travis Jensen said he was a the docks here to help ensure the health and safety of Americans onboard.
"We haven't been in contact with the ship because they were on battery power," he said. "No emergency evacuations have been reported."
Travel agents eager to help passengers ashore waited alongside diplomats and dozens of journalists.
"The focus of the operation is to get them a warm meal and a shower," said Guillaume Albert, head of Creole Travel Service. "I think the happy ending is the people coming off the boat."
The average age of passengers onboard the ship is 55 years, he said, and the heat and lack of hygiene could be uncomfortable for some of the older travelers. The weather in the Seychelles is hot and humid.
The fire came only six weeks after the Costa Concordia, owned by the same company, hit a reef and capsized off Italy, killing 25 people and leaving seven missing and presumed dead.
"I know it was bad luck for these guys but they are doing the best they can," Albert said. "They have a lot of image building to do right now but I've seen a very professional team."
"It happened in quite an isolated spot so it took quite a while to get back here," said British High Commissioner Matthew Forbes as he waited for the boat to dock.
A Seychelles official suggested on Wednesday that the journey may also have taken longer because the French fishing vessel towing the cruise ship had refused to give way to two faster tugs sent by the Seychelles. Although assistance to people at sea is free, assistance to ships is often paid.
On Thursday, Lt. Col. Michael Rosette, the deputy chief of staff of the military, said the tug boats were more appropriate than the fishing vessel but that the decision not to switch towing vessels was up to the cruise line company.
The Allegra, whose Italian name means "merry," or "happy," left northern Madagascar, off Africa's southeast coast, on Saturday. The liner was carrying 413 crew members and 627 passengers, including 212 Italians, 31 Britons and eight Americans.
About 375 people are taking advantage of the company's offer of a free 15-day vacation in the Seychelles.
"The fact we have a carnival on, the weather is great, and the fact they want to continue their holidays is great for them and great for us," said Srdjana Janosevic, spokeswoman for the president of the Seychelles. "It means this potentially tragic situation has a happy ending."
Tourism in the tiny island nation almost stopped completely in 2009 because of the threat of pirate attacks. There were no reports of pirates approaching the stricken Costa Allegra or even being seen.
The Seychelles is a chain of white-sand resort islands that attracts celebrities and royalty. Its population is just 87,000, and it is heavily dependent on fishing and tourism.