Friday-, September I, 1944
THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Six
Mefkure Sunk Deliberately Supplies Valued at
$130,000 Sent From
By Germans; 80 Orphans Die Detroit
to Russia
Rescued Jewish Woman, One of Five Survivors, Describes
Shelling of Refugee Boat by Nazis; Deliberate
'Action Charged by John W. Pehle, WRB Chief
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—John W. Pehle, executive di-
rector of the War Refugee Board, confirmed the original re-
port of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Turkish -ves-
sel Mefkure which went down two weeks ago with more
than 250 Jewish refugees while on the way from the Ru-
manian port of Constanza to Turkey, was sunk deliberately
by German shell fire.
According to a cable received
by Mr. Pehle from Ira Hirsch-
mann, War Refugee Board rep-
resentative in Turkey, the five
survivors of the Mefkure stated
that the ship was approached by
three surface craft near mid-
night • Aug.* 5. The boats were
barges about the length of two
railroad cars, and were armed
with machine guns and cannons.
The boats fired both cannons and
machine guns at the Mefkure.
One of the first shots exploded the
machinery in the machine room
and the ship was set aflame by
incendiary bullets.
Survivors Go to Palestine
The survivors said that many
of their number were wounded
by shell fire. Others were caught
•in the flames or injured by flying
machinery. The machine guns
continued to fire upon many of
the. passengers after they had
donned life preservers - and
jumped into the water.
, The five Mefkure survivors
and the 395 passengers from the
S. S.. Bulbul, • which made the
trip a few hours behind the Mef-
kure are now- en route to Pales,
tine by rail, Pehle said. The
Bulbul passengers reported that
their ship was not on the scene
during the attack on the • Mef-
kure. Later the armed boats ap-
proached the Bulbul and its en-
gines were shut down. At pay-
light it picked up the only
survivors that could be found. A
storm was raging, otherwise it
was thought that more than five
might have been rescued. For
Some unknown reason, the armed
boats did not fire upon the
Bulbul, which continued its voy-
age carrying its passengers to
Ignaeda, Turkey.
Pehle stated that the emerg-
ency rescue operation which in-
cluded the bringing of the Mef-
kure survivors, and the Bulbul
passengers by oxcart from Ignae-
da to Vize, by truck to Cherkas-
koy, and by train to Istanbul,
was conducted under the super-
vision of the Turkish Red
Crescent.
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_
Rescued Jewish Woman
Describes Mefkure Shelling
ISTANBUL, (JTA)--,A miracle
is about to occur at the American
Hospital here. Eighteen-year-old
Veronica Ladislaus, • a Jewish
refugee rescued from the Mef-
kure, will have her baby, and
the doctors predict that - .both
mother and child will live. This
is a wonder, for only two weeks
ago. Veronica survived one. of
the war's most wanton slaughters:
She was saved when the Ger-
mans shelled and burned the
. Turkish refugee ship, the Mef-
kure, and then machine-gunned
the swimmers.
Veronica and her husband
lived in Budapest. He had a good
job for a youth of 22. They were
both champion swimmers, young,
in love and happy. But they were
Jews. So when Himmler's black-
clad. Shutzstaffel took over Hun-
gary they were doomed. For him,
because he was strong, the pros-
pect was hard labor and death;
for her, because she was young
and lovely, enforced prostitution
and death.
Warned by Romanians
Veronica • is not coherent on
how she reached the port of
Constanza, Romania. She and her
husband travelled like gypsies
through the Balkan uplands and
reached it 'finally. There were
three tiny ships there, the Bulbul.
the Morino and the Mefkure,
built like Dutch shoes and lack-
ing passenger facilities. The refu-
gees poured in until 1,100 were
crammed into the three ships :
which perhaps could have ac-
commodated 100 in reasonable
comfort for • the last lap of the
escape across t; le Black Sea.
They were warned. Romanians
whispered, "the Gerinans are
watching you."
But they set out. The 200-ton
Mefkure first, the smaller ships
following, loaded with Hungarian
and German refugees. Dawn
came and with it they saw three
specks upon the sea behind,
tracking them like a wolf after
its prey. By dusk it was plain
that the -trackers were 30-meter
German patrol boats.
Many Incinerated
A flare burst over the refugee
fleet, its bare, stark whiteness
exposing each ship, each mast,
each person. The patrol boats
opened up. The Mefkure was
closest. They lobbed cannon
shells into her until she caught
fire. They ripped her open with
20mm bullets. The Turkish motor
ship burned. Between 40 and 50
of her passengers dived over-
board. They were fighting for a
chance to live. The others were
incinerated.
Philip and Veronica here in
the water. It was only seven
miles off the Turkish coast, but
the Germans sought them out
with searchlights and machine
'guns ripped the sea. Their friends
died. Phillip cut the lifebelts
from the dead bodies and gave
them to his wife. Many times she
missed death. A propeller churn-
ed inches from her head. Bullets
cut a phosphorescent path along-
side her. Still she survived and
swam and floated. When dawn
came, the Bulbul picked them
and four others up. The Ger-
mans had gone. Veronica was
landed at the little port of
Ignaeda, just barely on Turkish
territory. From Ignaeda she
travelled by oxcart. Today she
is in the American hospital and
her baby is due within a week.
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Jewish News Deadlines
Important Announcement to
Readers and Correspondents
Detroiters h a v e contributed
more than 13,000 Family Emer-
gency Kits and 150,000 pounds of
new and used clothing, evaluated
at over $130,000. More than 4,000
of these kits were packed and
contributed by the Jewish Folks
Committee.
Included in the shipments from
Detroit besides the kits and cloth-
ing, were watches, medical, books
and supplies; seeds and musical
supplies. The majority of these
gifts came from nationality, civic
and religious groups.
On each kit and bag of cloth-
ing shipped to the Soviet Union
is a label with the American flag
prominently displayed and place
for a message from the Ameri-
can donor to a family in the
Soviet Republics.
Annciuncement recently was
made that relief contributions of
clothing and urgently needed
supplies may now be collected by
Russian War Relief for liberated
Poland.
The attention of readers of and contributors to the columns
of The Jewish News is called to the rules affecting our deadlines.
Regular deadlines are before 3 p. m. on Tuesdays.
Announcements regarding deadlines during holiday weeks are
always made in advance.
For the New Year Issue, to be dated Sept. 15, the deadline for
all copy will be at 3 p. m. on Monday, Sept. 11.
Because of Rosh Hashanah, which occurs on Sept. 18 and 19,
the deadline for our Sept. 22 issue will be at 3 p. m. on Friday,
Sept. 15. •
On account of Yom Kippur, which occurs on Wednesday, Sept.
27, The Jewish News that week will be mailed a day earlier than
usual and the deadline for the Sept. 29 issue will be on Monday,
Sept. 25, at 1 p. m.
Because of Sukkoth, occurring on Oct. 2-3 and Oct. 9-10, the
deadlines for our issues of Oct. 6 and Oct. 13 will be on Fridays,
Sept. 29 and Oct. 6, respectively, at 3 p. m.
9otee
CANNING AIDS
Avukah Region Has
7th Summer School
And Camp Session
at your neighborhood Edison office
Midwest Region of Avukah,
American Student Zionist Feder-
ation, is conducting its seventh
annual summer school and camp
from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7, at the
Henry Baker Buildings, West
Camp Wise, Painesville, 0.
Heading the list of speakers
will be Israel Mereminski, Amer-
ican representative of the Histad-
rut, General Federation of Jewish
Labor in PaleStine, who will
speak on "Current Issues in Pal-
estine," and Eleazar Lipsky, as-
sistant district attorney- of New
York and son of Zionist leader
Louis Lipsky, who will present
an "Analysis of the Position of
the Jews and of the Zionist
Movement in the World Today."
The summer school - camp,
which .is run on a co-operative
basis, was planned this year by
the Western Reserve University
chapter of Avukah. Co-directors
are Yofa Shapiro, senior in the
School of Education, and Miriam
Schwartz, senior in Flora Stone.
Mather College of Western Re-
serve University. C o m m i t t e e
chairmen are: Frances Gordon,
publicity; Gerald Handel, pro-
gram; and Judith Steinberg, ar-
rangements.
Eighty Jewish Orphans
Perished on the Mefkure
JERUSALEM, (JTA) — Eighty
Jewish orphans who lost their
parents in Transnistria, were
among the refugees sunk by the
Germans on the Mefkure, it was
stated by a girl, a Miss Wurm-
brand, one of the survivors, who
said that the Germans, in addi- Refugees Are Dazed
tion to shelling the Mefkure and By New Wonderland
machine-gunning those w ho
jumped from the burning ship,
NEW YORK—The unreserved
also let loose specially trained joy of men, women and children
dogs to make sure of the drown- now quartered in the refugee
ing of the swimming victims.
`Free Port' camp at Fort Ontario,
Oswego, N. Y., was described
this week • by Miss Anna Kauf-
man and Mrs. Esther Kaunitz, of
the National Council of Jewish
..
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AJC Women Here
To Hear Talk on
Defense Legislation
American Jewish Congress
Official to Address Local
Chapter on Sept. 13
, Miss Milly Brandt, National
Chairman of Legislative Action,
will be guest speaker at the open 7
ing luncheon of the Detroit Wo-
men's Division of the American
Jewish Congress, Wednesday,
Sept. 13, at 12:30 p. in., at the
Jewish Center. Her subject will
be "The Role of. Legislation in
Defense of the Rights of Jews
and Other Minorities in Amer-
ica".
Miss Brandt has directed unit-
ed action between The Women's
Division an clother liberal groups
combatting subversive legislation
and furthering legislation cor-
rect interpreting the spirit of the
Constitution and the Bill of
Rights.
Mrs. Morris Weingarten, for-
tn.er president of the local group,
will deliver the invocation and
Mrs._Julian Tobias, a graduate of
, Wayne University School of
Drama, will give a dramatic read-
ing from the Congress Weekly .
For reservations, call Mrs.
Charles Feinberg, UN. 2-2373. •
Despite drought and hot weather, thousands of Victory
Gardens are now rewarding their owners with abun-
dant produce. Now is the time—when you are reaping
the harvest—to put aside part of it for your winter
needs. "Eat what you can and CAN what you can't"
is a good motto!
To help you fill your shelves with home-canned fruits
and vegetables—and to show you how easy home
canning really is—actual demonstrations are held each
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at the EDISON
CANNING CENTER in neighborhood Edison offices.
'fere you can get help and advice on all your canning
problems. Canning bulletins and charts are available
bee of charge, and also information on dehydrating
quick-freezing of foods.
Women.
According to the NCJW repre-
sentatives who visited the camp,
the recent arrivals from Europe
who have suffered under the
Nazi yoke, look upon their tem-
porary home as a gigantic, fab-
ulously rich wonderland.
"Many of them were amazed
to have private rooms—they had
not enjoyed such comfort for 10 ,
or 12 years," Miss Kaufman said.
Mrs. Kaunitz reported seeing one
woman kiss the walls of the bar-
racks in which the people live.
Work squads to serve in the
Visit the EDISON CANNING CENTER. It will be open
three days a week, all through the canning season.
on tho following scb.edule:
-
e.
camp's hospital and kitchens have
been organized, also a kinder-
garten staffed by refugee mem-
bers of the camp has been estab-
lished.
1 WHO WILL BE
PRESIDENT?
Your Vote Will Count!
REGISTER AT ONCE
AT THE CITY HALL
Oct. III Is the Deadline
League to Combat Anti-Semitism
.,put your Victory Garden under gloss!
Every Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday from 10 to 5 at these locations:
••••
.22010 Michigan Avenue near Monroe
DEARBORN MICE.
GENERAL MOTORS OFFICE, —That Floor, General Motors Building
GRAND RIVER OFFICE...-8836 Grand River Avenue near Livernolz
GRATIOT OFFICE 9080 Grata Avenue at Harper
HIGHLAND PARK OFFICE.... 13953 Woodward Avenue near Ford
FEFFERSON OFFICE..... , .13314 E Jefferson Avenue near Copliis
f1EDFORD OFFICE... „ ...21600 Grand River Avenue at Burgess
' 4