David Stoliar ^People

In 1941 his father Jacob bought David a ticket to travel on the Struma,an elderly motor schooner that was bound for Palestine. Jacob got him released from the labour camp and bribed Romanian officials to issue Stoliar a passport. On 12 December 1941 David sailed from Constanta aboard the Struma, but her engine repeatedly failed and three days later a Turkish tug towed her into Istanbul. At the UK's behest, Turkey held Struma at anchor in Istanbul without allowing her passengers to disembark.Negotiations between Turkey and Britain over the fate of the refugees seemed to reach an impasse, and on 23 February 1942 Turkish authorities boarded Struma, towed her back into the Black Sea with her engine still inoperable and cast her adrift.The next morning, Soviet submarine Shch-213 commanded by D. M. Denezhko sank Struma with a single torpedo. Stoliar survived the blast and clung to a floating piece of deck, and later was joined by the ship's First Officer, who was Bulgarian. Stoliar later claimed the officer told him that he saw the torpedo before it sank the Struma.The officer died overnight. After his rescue Stoliar was detained inTurkey for six weeks. After an outcry and strike in Palestine, Turkish authorities re- leased him to Simon Brod. Afterwards British authorities acquiesced and issued him travel papers and a visa to Palestine, Brod put him on the train to Palestine. British authorities in Palestine erviewed Stoliar about the Struma sinking.