When a Rescue Became a Massacre: The SS Patria Secretollapse

When a Rescue Became a Massacre: The SS Patria Secretollapse

Fear that a desperate rescue could become a deadly disaster drives this episode: a two-kilogram bomb tore a three-meter hole in an 11,000-ton liner and sank it in 16 minutes, killing more than 200 people - so what went wrong with a plan meant to save lives?

In this episode, we tell the documented sequence of events aboard the SS Patria in Haifa harbor, from the refugees’ forced transfer to the Haganah operation intended to disable the ship and the aftermath that buried the truth for 17 years; how did a device meant to cripple engines instead destroy a ship and lives?

Person: Yitzhak Sadeh
Date: November 25, 1940
Location: Haifa harbor
Event: Explosion and sinking of SS Patria
Fatalities: more than 200

- The explosive charge weighed two kilograms, described as roughly the size and weight of a bag of flour.
- The bomb tore a hole three meters high through the Patria’s steel hull.
- The 11,000-ton ocean liner rolled onto its side and sank in sixteen minutes.
- Approximately 1,904 people were on board when the explosion occurred.
- The ship’s certified civilian capacity was 805, while it had been authorized for up to 1,800 troops in wartime configuration.

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