Rumanian Jewry today marked the 25th anniversary of the sinking of the Struma, a refugee ship that foundered in the Sea of Marmora in 1943 with 769 Jews aboard who were trying to escape to Palestine from Nazi-occupied Europe. Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen of Rumania, in a memorial sermon delivered to worshippers in the Choral Temple here, denounced “those who could have saved” the Struma victims “by lifting a finger, but did not do so.” He said the Struma has “become the symbol of a guilt almost as great as that of the Fascist assassins.” Rabbi Rosen also took the occasion to express the grief of Rumanian Jewry over a contemporary sea tragedy, the loss of the Israeli submarine Dakar with 69 aboard.
The Struma was one of several small, over-aged ships that transported Jewish escapees from Nazi Europe from Balkan ports but was denied entry to Palestine and other countries. The vessel went down with all aboard in a storm on the sea which lies between the Dardenelles and the Bosporus.
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