In 1942, 769 Jewish refugees from Romania attempting to reach Mandatory Palestine were killed in the "Struma" disaster after their ship sank in Turkish territorial waters. Referring to the disaster, Saydam explained that "Turkey will not become the home of people who are not wanted by anyone else". During the 1940s, around 10,000 Jews obtained transit visas enabling them to pass through Turkey on the way to Mandatory Palestine. Turkey imposed limits on these visas, issuing them only to be valid for ten days, which meant they were unusable whenever wartime conditions led to delays. Guttstadt found that "during the decisive years of 1942 and 1943, the flight through Turkey was largely blocked" and the majority of these Jews passed through Turkey in late 1944 after the Allies captured southeastern Europe. Although the 10-day period was quite enough to leave Turkey, it was not possible for Jews to pass through Turkey at that time (1942-1943) when the Turkish border was under German control.