- Mefkura
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Mefkura (also called Mefkure) was a motor schooner chartered to carry Jewish Holocaust refugees from Romania to Istanbul, sailing under the Turkish and Red Cross flags.
The ship left from the port of Constanța before dawn on August 5, 1944, together with the ships Bulbul and Morina. The German navy provided them with escort and signal flags to facilitate their departure from the harbour and the mined area around it. After midnight the ship was illuminated by flares from an unknown vessel. It failed to respond and carried on. Then it was fired on and began to burn. The captain and 6 crew escaped in a lifeboat but only 5 of the 350 passengers survived. The Bulbul was also intercepted, but was allowed to continue after identifying itself. The passengers from the Bulbul and Morina reached Turkey and continued overland to Palestine.[1]
It was much later revealed that the ship had been torpedoed by the Soviet submarine Shch 215.[2]
See also
References
- ^ Dalia Ofer, Escaping the Holocaust, Oxford University Press (1990), p260-266.
- ^ http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5046.html
External links
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