Forgetting to Forget, 1923–1944 where.” He made this statement after the Struma, a ship carrying nearly
1 , 000 Jewish refugees from Romania was not permitted to disembark its
passengers in Istanbul, but instead, after over two months, was towed
through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea, set adrift, and later torpedoed
and sunk by a Soviet submarine, killing all but one passenger.^72 Such sen-
timent was reflected in Turkish foreign policy and its treatment of Turkish
Jews abroad. In the 1930 s and 1940 s, the Turkish Republic denaturalized
most Jews with Turkish citizenship living in Europe, half of whom lived
in France, and forbade them to reenter Turkey, which allowed the Nazis to
send them to their deaths between 1942 and 1944. This occurred after the
Nazis had asked Turkish embassies to repatriate their nationals, lest they
be subjected to anti-Jewish measures. Most denaturalizations occurred
after German authorities sent the Turkish embassy lists of Jews, inquiring
about their status. Turkish embassies were even asked about the status of
Jews held in detainment camps in western Europe prior to their deporta-
tion to certain death in the east.^73 Some Jews were saved here and there
by Turkish consular officials, and Turkey welcomed up to one hundred
German Jewish scholars during these years. However, due to the lack of
intervention of Turkish authorities on their behalf, because its diplomats
were ordered “not to send trains full of Jews to Turkey,” several thousand
Turkish Jews were instead sent to Auschwitz, never to return.^74
Such contemporary views of and policies toward citizens who were not
Muslims, especially Jews, hindered the full realization of the project to cre-
ate equal citizens in the republic.^75 The ruling Republican People’s Party’s
view of Jews crippled the success of the government’s social blueprint and
secular rhetoric. Already in the early 1930 s, the party’s organ, Ülkü (Ideal)
cited and emulated ideas from fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.^76 A party
report written in 1944 argued that non-Muslims did not integrate, spoke
their own languages, had played no role in the foundation of the republic,
served the interests of foreign powers, and never demonstrated their loy-
alty to Turkey.^77 The report states that Jews never mixed with others, since
they remained separate, their only goal being to earn money. The report
proposes that Turkey should not permit the Jewish population to grow,
but ease Jewish emigration, decrease their population, and remove them
from important spheres of the Turkish economy. As an MP and former
justice minister remarked, the environment created by Nazi successes in
Europe offered “the last opportunity Turkey would have for several years
to eliminate Jewish domination of Turkish commerce.”^78