Prayers for the Departed

REFUGEES Prayers for the Departed

The 17,870-ton steamship Rossia wallowed in the fog at Marseilles' rickety pier G. At her stern, a red flag hung limply in the November drizzle; on her funnel was the hammer and sickle.* Above the monotonous slap of the waves came occasional harsh orders, the melancholy strains of a Russian song.

Below decks were 1,740 refugees, the human jetsam tossed up by two wars and their attendant revolutions and hatreds. Some were pro-Soviet Russians who had been imprisoned by the Germans; some were White Russians with Nansen passports; some were Bulgarians, Rumanians, Poles who turned to Russia when the rest of the world proved inhospitable. For 20 days before sailing most of the passengers had languished in a concentration camp built by the Germans for slave laborers. Then they had been driven to the dockside in crowded trucks, whisked aboard under the watchful eye of French and Russian police.

Voices of Despair. French Communist newspapers tried to glamorize the voyage. On board, they said, were retired Russian Generals Postovski and Makhrov and four Princes Obolensky. Actually, the Generals were basking in the Riviera sun, the Princes apparently, in no hurry to leave Paris.

Some farewells from actual passengers:

Carpenter Josef Luckasti, 55: "I am lost and penniless after 25 years in exile [from Russia]. I will return, and I hope to find work. . . ."

Rumanian-born Philippe Guecht, 40, who believed that "war was the only road to peace": "I have chosen Soviet citizenship . . . and [hope] to find work as a show producer. I believe that Russia is the only country where liberty and art really exist."

Wolf Cukersvein, a 35-year-old, Warsaw-born doctor who left Poland because, as a Jew, he could not gain admission to a university; had fled anti-Semitism in Italy; settled in Toulouse as a radiologist: "Even there I ... could not get work because of racial prejudice. . . . The

Soviets have promised to help my scientific research. I have no particular beliefs but go willingly . . . because I know that I won't be hindered by racial prejudice."

From A to B. But the star attraction was 50-year-old Russian Author Nicolas Rostchine (White Lilac, Mountain Sun, The Stork). Said Rostchine: "I fought the Germans in the Resistance. He who does A must consequently do B. Fighting Germans, I fought for Russia. Now I must return. ... I took this decision after approaching Soviet representatives in Paris, who convinced me that those governing Russia today are the best men in the world, and that the salvation of the world lies in total Sovietization of all countries."

As the Rossia eased away from the quay into the gathering murk, lights blazed in a tiny Russian church, erected in the backyard of Marseilles' only Russian restaurant. A reverent hum came from the windows. Said the owner of the restaurant, a former ballet dancer in the Russian Imperial Theater: "We are also praying for those who are leaving."

*The Rossia, something of a seagoing refugee herself, has sailed under three flags in eight years. Built at Hamburg in 1938 as the German Patria, she was taken over by the Allies at Flensburg in May 1945, used as living quarters for a SHAEF mission, then became the British Empire Welland. In an allocation of tonnage between the Big Powers, she passed to Russia this year.

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