Romania and Jews in Turkey paid homage Friday to 768 Jews who died 70 years ago when the ship on which they were fleeing marshal Ion Antonescu's pro-Nazi regime was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine.
Several countries share the blame for the deaths, but "primary responsibility lies with Antonescu's regime," said historian Liviu Rotman during a seminar on the tragedy 70 years to the day the vessel was sunk.
On December 12, 1941 769 Jews boarded the Struma, a "coffin ship": rickety, unseaworthy vessels carrying far more than their safe limit. The Struma was built to carry no more than 100 people.
The Struma, which was bound for Palestine, reached Istanbul three days later and was immediately placed under quarantine.
Turkish officials, after consulting with the British authorities in Palestine, forced the passengers to stay on board, even when they ran out of food and water.
After 70 days of vain negotiations and appeals for help, the ship, whose engine had broken down, was towed off the Turkish coast and left adrift.
The next day, on February 24, 1942, the Struma was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing all but one of the passengers, in circumstances that are still unclear.
"This drama is part of the common Romanian and Jewish history," writer Stelian Tanase said.
"The victims were caught between Antonescu's anti-Semitic regime, the persecutions against Jews in Europe and hateful speculators" whose only aim was to make money out of this voyage, he added.
Marshal Antonescu still has some supporters in Romania.
But historian Lya Benjamin outlined his anti-Semitic policy, which included pogroms and deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews and Roma.
"All I am interested in is to free the country from Jews," he was quoted as telling the head of the secret service in 1941, Benjamin said.
"The important thing is that they leave without hard currency or jewels," he added.
In Istanbul, during a commemoration service, members of the Turkish Jewish community said Turkey must show the courage to apologize for its role in the Struma tragedy.
"Just like German Chancellor Angela Merkel apologized for Turks who were murdered by neo-Nazis, Ankara must have the same courage," Izhak Alaton, a leading member of the community, said.
Alaton told the Hurriyet daily newspaper he was only 15 years old when he carried bread to the Struma every morning while it was anchored at the Istanbul shore.
"I realized that they were sent to death when a morning came and we did not find the boat where it had been. Only the Jewish community helped out those people who were living in that old boat with diseases and hunger," he added.