Survivors of disastrous 1956 Andrea Doria sinking mark anniversary in NYC with tear-jerking museum exhibit
Four survivors of the tragic ocean crash — including a young mother traveling alone with her baby at the time — gathered at The Italian American Museum in Little Italy, where the exhibit was unveiled for the 69th anniversary of the wreck.
'I personally remember the crash, this loud, loud noise, and people screaming, tables just being thrown against the walls, and people being thrown all over the floor, bleeding and yelling things like, 'Oh, we must have hit an iceberg!' ' said Pierette Dominica Simpson, who was sailing with her grandparents at age 9 when the ship sank.
Survivors of the deadly 1956 Andrea Doria sinking honored the anniversary of the crash at The Italian American Museum in Little Italy.
Bettmann Archive
'I was coming to a new family, a new life in America,' said Simpson, who is now a historian.
The doomed ship had left Genoa, Italy, and was bound for New York City on July 25, 1956, when it was broadsided by the passenger liner Stockholm in the dense fog off the coast of Nantucket, Mass.
The collision killed 46 people aboard the luxury transatlantic ocean liner, which was then Italy's largest, fastest and purportedly safest ship.
Five others died aboard the Stockholm.
Rescuers saved 1,660 of the 1,706 passengers aboard the Andrea Doria, many of whom were children at the time.
Other survivors on hand at the Manhattan commemoration, who spanned in age from 69 to 92, said they were overwhelmed by mixed emotions ranging from gratitude to sadness over memories of the accident.
Four of the survivors gathered at the museum where an exhibit was unveiled on the 69th anniversary of the shipwreck that killed 46 people.
William Farrington
'I'm so happy to be here, so happy to be alive,' said survivor Sofia Sena, who was immigrating to the US at age 20 when the ships collided.
Delfina Cadoria, 92, was just 23 years old and traveling alone with her 6-month-old baby.
'It was about 10 p.m., I was on the deck with this woman and looking down at the water. It was so foggy. Suddenly, we hear this sharp cracking sound,' Cadoria said.
She had to climb down a rope dangling off the ship as a sailor held her infant — and they both miraculously made it to shore.
Simpson recalled being tied to a rope and lowered down to a lifeboat.
Her grandparents also made it to a rescue boat.
'I thought I was being dropped into the ocean because I couldn't see,' Simpson said.
'I was screaming, of course, and separated from my grandparents under such crazy conditions.'
The new exhibit features dozens of artifacts from the ship, including items kept by passengers and recovered by divers.
They include the 140-pound brass auxiliary steering station bell, a deck chair and life preserver, along with fine china and works of art from the ship.
'This exhibit tells you everything about … the value of life, you know, trying to make a better life for ourselves by moving to, in the case of the immigrants on the ship, coming here,' said museum curator Janine Coyne.
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New York Post
25-07-2025
- New York Post
Survivors of disastrous 1956 Andrea Doria sinking mark anniversary in NYC with tear-jerking museum exhibit
Survivors of the disastrous 1956 Andrea Doria sinking honored the anniversary of the crash Friday at a tear-jerking new Manhattan museum exhibit that features dozens of treasured items recovered from the ship. Four survivors of the tragic ocean crash — including a young mother traveling alone with her baby at the time — gathered at The Italian American Museum in Little Italy, where the exhibit was unveiled for the 69th anniversary of the wreck. 'I personally remember the crash, this loud, loud noise, and people screaming, tables just being thrown against the walls, and people being thrown all over the floor, bleeding and yelling things like, 'Oh, we must have hit an iceberg!' ' said Pierette Dominica Simpson, who was sailing with her grandparents at age 9 when the ship sank. Survivors of the deadly 1956 Andrea Doria sinking honored the anniversary of the crash at The Italian American Museum in Little Italy. Bettmann Archive 'I was coming to a new family, a new life in America,' said Simpson, who is now a historian. The doomed ship had left Genoa, Italy, and was bound for New York City on July 25, 1956, when it was broadsided by the passenger liner Stockholm in the dense fog off the coast of Nantucket, Mass. The collision killed 46 people aboard the luxury transatlantic ocean liner, which was then Italy's largest, fastest and purportedly safest ship. Five others died aboard the Stockholm. Rescuers saved 1,660 of the 1,706 passengers aboard the Andrea Doria, many of whom were children at the time. Other survivors on hand at the Manhattan commemoration, who spanned in age from 69 to 92, said they were overwhelmed by mixed emotions ranging from gratitude to sadness over memories of the accident. Four of the survivors gathered at the museum where an exhibit was unveiled on the 69th anniversary of the shipwreck that killed 46 people. William Farrington 'I'm so happy to be here, so happy to be alive,' said survivor Sofia Sena, who was immigrating to the US at age 20 when the ships collided. Delfina Cadoria, 92, was just 23 years old and traveling alone with her 6-month-old baby. 'It was about 10 p.m., I was on the deck with this woman and looking down at the water. It was so foggy. Suddenly, we hear this sharp cracking sound,' Cadoria said. She had to climb down a rope dangling off the ship as a sailor held her infant — and they both miraculously made it to shore. Simpson recalled being tied to a rope and lowered down to a lifeboat. Her grandparents also made it to a rescue boat. 'I thought I was being dropped into the ocean because I couldn't see,' Simpson said. 'I was screaming, of course, and separated from my grandparents under such crazy conditions.' The new exhibit features dozens of artifacts from the ship, including items kept by passengers and recovered by divers. They include the 140-pound brass auxiliary steering station bell, a deck chair and life preserver, along with fine china and works of art from the ship. 'This exhibit tells you everything about … the value of life, you know, trying to make a better life for ourselves by moving to, in the case of the immigrants on the ship, coming here,' said museum curator Janine Coyne.
Wall Street Journal
18-07-2025
- Wall Street Journal
‘Remember Us to Life' Review: Family Ties Erased By Time
Growing up in Stockholm, the illustrator Joanna Rubin Dranger was faintly aware that her maternal grandfather, David, had family members who had 'disappeared' in Poland during the Holocaust. But such things weren't spoken about during her mother's childhood, and David, who'd emigrated to Sweden as a teenager, had died before Ms. Rubin Dranger was born. The graphic memoir 'Remember Us to Life' is Ms. Rubin Dranger's soulful account of her effort to learn what happened to David's lost relatives. She traces other branches of her family tree as well, including a distant cousin who pulled off a nail-biting escape from Nazi-occupied Norway to the United States. The book opens with a brief chapter on the suicide of the author's adored Aunt Susanne, her mother's sister, a stark reminder of the effects of trauma on subsequent generations. Ms. Rubin Dranger's black-and-white drawings, spare yet richly expressive, are interspersed with family photographs and archival materials, including newspaper articles and political cartoons. Many of the photos had been locked away in attics for decades, unearthed by relatives assisting the author with her project. They depict David's parents and siblings fashionably dressed and laughing, and their effect on Ms. Rubin Dranger is profound. 'It is the very modernity of the pictures that floods me over and over with the incomprehensibility of it all,' she writes. Only David and his brother Chaim, who fled to Palestine, survived; letters between the two capture their mounting desperation and despair when they stop receiving replies from their family in Poland. Throughout the memoir, the author grapples with her place in Sweden, which, despite its official neutrality, allowed Nazi Germany to transport soldiers and weapons across its borders for most of the war. In 2018, while Ms. Rubin Dranger was working on the book, neo-Nazis marched through a Stockholm neighborhood. Later, a swastika was spray-painted on her house. 'The world seems to be turning the wrong way,' she observes.
New York Post
15-07-2025
- New York Post
‘Nazi' Creek in this US state is getting a new name after 70 years — here's why
A one-mile stream in Alaska dubbed 'Nazi Creek' after it was reclaimed from the Axis Powers during World War II has finally been renamed after more than seven decades of debate. Kiska Island and Little Kiska at the far western end of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska were taken over by the Japanese military in June 1942, mere months after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor 1,000 miles away. 4 Nazi Creek was originally named by US soldiers while using an alphanumeric grid system for their maps. Bettmann Archive Advertisement The occupation lasted a year. But it wasn't the Japanese who gave the creek its hotly contested name. Instead, American soldiers dubbed the stream 'Nazi Creek.' The title was 'arbitrarily applied to features' around the area by the US Army Air Forces for tactical reasons during the war, according to the Dictionary of Alaska Place Names. Even after World War II ended, the name remained at a federal level and was placed on an Army map in 1953 before Alaska joined the US six years later. Advertisement 4 Nazi Creek is about one mile long. Alaska's News Source At the time, the military used an alphanumeric grid system on its maps. The mile-long stream fell into the 'N' grid, and so Nazi Creek was born. Other natural features nearby were named under the same system, including places Moron Lake, Rat Lake, Jeff Cove, Robert Ridge and Magic Mountain, according to the Alaska Guide Company. Advertisement Some other spots like Auburn and Brunette Cove were also named by soldiers who just liked the titles because of the association with classic 'pin-up' girls, according to the website. 4 Soldiers named other nearby natural features including Moron Lake and Magic Mountain. Getty Images Renaming Nazi Creek was a two-year-long endeavor spearheaded by Alaska historian and map enthusiast Michael Livingston. The historian sought to establish new titles to reflect the Indigenous Aleutian Unangax̂ who originally resided in the area, he told KUCB last year. The proposed name was workshopped over time, but it stayed centered around 'Kangchix̂,' the island's Unangax̂ name, which translates to 'gizzard' in English. Advertisement Finally, the creek's name will be changed to 'Kaxchim Chiĝanaa,' which translates to 'creek or river belonging to gizzard island.' Livingston also lumped in a campaign to rename nearby 'Nip Hill' — an ethnic slur against Japanese people. Like the creek, its name was changed to 'Kaxchim Qayaa,' or 'gizzard hill.' 'It wasn't appropriate in the 1940s, and it's certainly still not appropriate in the 2020s,' he told the outlet. During the spring, the Alaska Historical Commission voted unanimously to change the names, which gave the effort more momentum. The US Board on Geographic Names has since approved the name changes, making way for the federal government to remove Nazi Creek and Nip Hill from databases, according to the New York Times. 4 The new names were inspired by the Aleutian name for the island, 'Kangchix̂.' Getty Images The roughly 880 Unangax̂ residents who lived on the island when it was raided by the Japanese were evacuated and placed into internment camps by the United States. Advertisement Roughly 80 died of disease while festering in the miserable conditions, according to 'Unangax̂: Coastal People of Far Southwestern Alaska,' a paper by Douglas Veltre, an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Tens of thousands of people of Japanese descent, including US citizens, were also placed in similar internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Congress voted in favor of paying reparations to both groups in 1988, specifically for the harm they suffered while imprisoned.
