Tag #125809 - Interview #97938 (Moiz Isman)

I was working at Koc, when the Struma Ship [17] Tragedy took place. There were Romanian Jews on the ship.  With the help of our friend Altabev and Vehbi Koc, we were able to convey food aid to the ship.  We took the 2-3 people, who were saved from the ship near us, and gave food to them. ( I don’t remember their names). They were sheltered at the Orphans Protection Association. We arranged their passports at the Israel Consulate, and sent them to Israel. Nisim Palti and Mr. Brot were within the organization, and they arranged such things. Brot used to give the visas. Even my former boss had wanted to send me to Israel. I had gotten my visa from Mr. Brot  in 24 hours. But my family’s character was not suitable for this. I had to stay here. Mr. Brot was a Zionist. He was the owner of the shop called “Mayer” (the first multi-storeyed shop in Beyoglu). The ones saved from Struma told us how the ship had been bombarded. They had stayed on the sea for 4-5 days, and had suffered a lot of difficulties. Unfortunately there were 700-800 people in the ship, but only 2-3 people were saved.  It was a very big tragedy.