SHIMON RUBINSTEIN

    Personal Tragedies as a Reflection
     on a Great Tragedy Called
  STRUMA


Desen de
Gretty Rubinstein

Appendix 1:                    David Stoliar’s Testimony
                                                                                                   See also David Stoliar's interview

 (included in the article by Avi Shmul, “Looking for Remnants of the Sunken Struma”, Haaretz, April 4th 2000)

The only survivor states: “Slowly, slowly, people were getting frozen and drowned.”

The only survivor of the Struma disaster, David Stoliar, 78, lives nowadays in Portland, Oregon. Yesterday he was interviewed by “Haaretz” and he detailed the circumstances in which he managed to survive: “The lower level was metallic and it sank immediately carrying hundreds of passengers. Hundreds of bodies were drifting on the sea, but Stoliar noticed a wooded beam that was a remnant of the deck. He clutched it and floated on it. A crew officer managed also to cling to the beam. We talked, sang and shouted until the small hours and we feared that if we would fall asleep our bodies would freeze. The officer could not handle the cold, and in the morning I found that he had died and I remained the only survivor".

The most frightening scene, he continued, was the fact that after the blast hundreds of passengers remained alive, clinging to every remnant of the ship that was drifting, hovering between life and death. Terrible shrieks were heard; we noticed the coast in the distance, but no help was in sight. The hours went by slowly, people were getting frozen and drowned one by one. Some Turkish fishermen noticed him by chance; they hauled him up and he was transferred under escort to a hospital. In spite of his weak health the Turkish authorities imprisoned him for two months. As soon as he was released from the Turkish prison, he got on the train to Syria and from there he proceeded to Haifa where he reported at the police station. Stoliar admits that he had not felt an incentive to commemorate the tragedy, but on the other hand he cannot understand how the disaster was cast into collective oblivion over such a long time. “A long span of time was necessary until people realized that the Struma is in fact a meaningful part of history,” he said.

1.2  Jacob Stoliar’s testimony
I would like to point out the encounter between my own parents, Erna and Nathan Rubinstein, and David Stoliar’s father, Jacob, that occurred by an unexpected turn of fate at the end of the 50’s or the beginning of the 60’s.While  my parents were spending holidays in the spa town of Tiberias (Hamey Tveria), they came in touch by  chance with a lady whose name was Rachel (Rachela) Hershkovici, and who was nicknamed “Parumbita” (= the dove), the name of her shop located opposite my parents’ glassware shop on Strîmba Street in Barlad opposite my childhood home. Rachela was proud to introduce to my parents her husband who was a pleasant-looking gentleman in his early sixties who was running a kiosk on the Mediterranean beach at Haifa. They spent several days together and as they were chatting, David Stoliar’s father started to conjure up the story of his family, and he also referred to the episode in which his son was the only survivor of the Struma tragedy. My parents are not historians and they didn’t think of writing down the details given by David Stoliar’s father. However they have good memories and are able to remember faithfully the main points of their conversations although their recollections may contain a number of inaccuracies due to the passing of time. Stoliar told my parents that he was a wealthy merchant in Bassarabia and that he succeeded to move to Romania (to the Old Kingdom “Regat”) before the Russians came in and Bassarabia was annexed by Russia (his wife, David’s mother, died when she was young). Given the unsafe circumstances that were developing in Romania he thought of the solution of sending his son to France. Due to the considerable wealth that he had managed to transfer from Bassarabia into Romania he was able to send his son to Paris where David continued his studies and he was living  in a boarding school. After a while he asked him to come back to Romania and thought that his departure aboard the Struma will bring him eventually to a safe place. David Stoliar’s father was a simple person and it goes without saying that he could not really recount the events from a historic perspective. That is why it behooves us to explore the historic and political background of the 1939-1942 time-span and by doing so one could properly understand Stoliar’s concerns  with  regards to the his son’s  future.

In my opinion Stoliar made up his mind to move from Bassarsabia to Romania (Regat, Old Kingdom) as a result of the German invasion of Poland on September the 1st ,1939. The Soviet Union decided  to enforce promptly the clauses of the Molotov-Ribbentrop secret agreement of August 23rd 1939 and annexed the territories that had been in fact granted to Russia including the regions of Bassarabia and north Bucovina. Undoubtedly Stoliar could not be aware of the political circumstances that brought about a sudden change in Romania’s position. Romania that was in fact an ally of Poland within the terms of the Little Entente treaty was too weak to condemn the invasion, it hastened to declare itself neutral on September 4th 1939 and had no alternative but to give in and accept the annexation of Bassarabia and north Bucovina regions by Russia. On July the 2nd 1940, Romania made the declaration that it was giving up the British guarantees and two days later a pro-German government came to power. Shortly afterwards on July 16th 1940 a German military delegation was invited to Bucharest by the new government. [30] In my opinion, Stoliar the father, could not have knowledge of these political developments and his actions were merely set off by an instinct for self-preservation and by the concern of saving his son’s life. As he made up his mind to send his son to Paris while Romania declared itself a neutral country, he could not have guessed that France, a Great Power and an ally of Britain according to the “Great Entente” treaty that had assured Romania of its political guarantees, was itself under imminent threat. However as soon as he realized this, he hastened to bring his son back to Romania in the summer of 1940 while the war in France was at its height and the collapse of France became a fact.

(It appears that following the capitulation of France, David Stoliar was able to return to Romania, as did other Romanian citizens, due to a request of the Romanian government addressed to the German.)[31]. As soon as his son returned from France, Stoliar came to the conclusion that the only chance left for David to remain alive was to emigrate to Palestine aboard the Struma and he hastened to pay the high amount requested for the sea-journey.[32] I would like to point out my parents’ remark that David’s stay in France had had a fateful meaning in his life, he started to take swimming classes... And so David Stoliar sailed on the Struma and his fate was to survive and be the sole survivor of the awful tragedy and  the only Struma survivor who is  still alive, after the death of Medeea, who witnessed the horrors of  Struma’s last days before the shipwreck. After the Second World War Stoliar became a businessman in Japan and today he is 78 and lives in the United States.[33]       

1.3  Professor Samuel Aroni’s corrigenda to “Comments on Several Personal Tragedies that were part of the General Tragedy Called Struma” (June 28, 2001, based on testimony by David Stoliar)

You wrote that David Stoliar’s father “succeeded to move to Romania (to the Old Kingdom ‘Regat’) before the Russians came in and Bassarabia was annexed by Russia (his wife, David’s mother, died when she was young),” that “he had managed to transfer from Bassarabia into Romania, that “he was able to send his son to Paris where David continued his studies and was living in a boarding school,” and that “he hastened to bring his son back to Romania in the summer of 1940 while the war in France was at its height and the collapse of France became a fact. (It appears that following the capitulation of France, David Stoliar was able to return to Romania as did other Romanian citizens, due to a request of the Romanian government addressed to the German.)”

None of the above is accurate!
See David Stoliar’s testimony, above pp. 22-23.)