Death on the Black Sea: The Untold Story of the 'Struma' and World War II's Holocaust at Sea – Diplomatic Callousness and a Forgotten Wartime Maritime

Death on the Black Sea: The Untold Story of the 'Struma' and World War II's Holocaust at Sea – Diplomatic Callousness and a Forgotten Wartime Maritime

On the morning of February 24, 1942, on the Black Sea near Istanbul, an explosion ripped through a decrepit former cattle barge filled with Jewish refugees. One man clung fiercely to a piece of deck, fighting to survive. Nearly eight hundred others -- among them, more than one hundred children -- perished. In Death on the Black Sea , the story of the Struma , its passengers, and the events that led to its destruction are investigated and fully revealed in two vivid, parallel accounts, set six decades apart. One chronicles the international diplomatic maneuvers and callousness that resulted in the largest maritime loss of civilian life during World War II. The other recounts a recent attempt to locate the Struma at the bottom of the Black Sea, an effort initiated and pursued by the grandson of two of the victims. A vivid reconstruction of a grim exodus aboard a doomed ship, Death on the Black Sea illuminates a forgotten episode of World War II and pays tribute to the heroes, past and present, who keep its memory alive. “Among the countless books about the Holocaust, Death on the Black Sea is particularly important.” - Washington Times “Mr. Frantz and Ms. Collins have performed a vital act of reclamation.” - New York Times “A meticulous, judicious, at times searing chronicle... It will leave no reader unmoved. - Chicago Tribune “A balanced, textured account that juxtaposes byzantine, coldly calculating diplomatic maneuverings with the suffering of the refugees.” - Fort Worth Star-Telegram On the morning of February 24, 1942, on the Black Sea near Istanbul, an explosion ripped through a decrepit former cattle barge filled with Jewish refugees. One man clung fiercely to a piece of deck, fighting to survive. Nearly eight hundred others -- among them, more than one hundred children -- perished. In Death on the Black Sea , the story of the Struma , its passengers, and the events that led to its destruction are investigated and fully revealed in two vivid, parallel accounts, set six decades apart. One chronicles the international diplomatic maneuvers and callousness that resulted in the largest maritime loss of civilian life during World War II. The other recounts a recent attempt to locate the Struma at the bottom of the Black Sea, an effort initiated and pursued by the grandson of two of the victims. A vivid reconstruction of a grim exodus aboard a doomed ship, Death on the Black Sea illuminates a forgotten episode of World War II and pays tribute to the heroes, past and present, who keep its memory alive. Douglas Frantz, the investigations editor at the New York Times, is the newspaper's former Istanbul bureau chief and a former investigative reporter the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. Catherine Collins covers Turkey for the Chicago Tribune and has written for the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Frantz and Collins have written several nonfiction books, most recently Celebration, U.S.A. Death on the Black Sea The Untold Story of the Struma and World War II's Holocaust at Sea By Douglas Frantz Ecco Copyright © 2004 Douglas Frantz All right reserved. ISBN: 0060936851 Chapter One Fall, 1986 When Greg Buxton walked up to the door, his manner was one of subdued excitement. Buxton was broad shouldered and just over six feet tall, with an easy smile and a pleasant, open face. He was twenty-one years old, a few months out of university in his native Britain. He glanced at the slip of paper in his hand, reading the address again, drawing a long breath as he did so. He had come to Tel Aviv on a whim. Shy by nature, he was suddenly reluctant to follow through on what he had thought would be just a pleasant adventure. But he could not deny the excitement that now flooded over him as he raised his right hand to rap on the door. Two weeks earlier Buxton had flown from London to Israel with a group of friends on holiday. They had taken a bus south to Egypt and crossed over to the Sinai Peninsula to scuba dive in the Red Sea, one of the most splendid undersea locations in the world. Buxton, an avid diver, had cut short his holiday and gone to Tel Aviv three days ahead of his mates. He hated to abandon the diving and drinking with his buddies, but a chance conversation with his father before he left Britain had changed Buxton's itinerary. He had no idea that it would alter his life, too. Back in London, Buxton had been rummaging around in his closet at home for a bit of dive gear when his father walked into the room. "What are you up to?" asked Michael Buxton. "Getting ready for that dive trip to the Red Sea next month," his son replied. Buxton told his father that he would be flying to Ben-Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv and then heading to the Sinai. The mention of Tel Aviv sparked the older man's memory. "My parents bought a piece of property in Tel Aviv," the elder man said. "It was before the war. They never got there. I tried to find it once,