“I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together.” - Ida Straus
Isidor Straus was co-owner of Macy’s Department Store. Ida Straus was a homemaker and his wife. Married for more than forty years, they were known for their shared love, almost always together and writing daily when away from each other. They even had the same birthday, February 6, though four years apart.
On April 14th, 1912, Ida and Isidor were passengers on the RMS Titanic, the largest ship of the time. As the ship began to sink after striking an iceberg, chaos and panic ensued, with not enough lifeboats for all of the passengers. Ida alone was offered a seat in a lifeboat, a chance for survival. She refused. “We have lived together for many years. Where you go, I go,” Ida said to her husband.
The two were then offered a seat together in another lifeboat. But with many women and children still on the sinking ship, Isidor refused to take the seat, unwilling to prioritize his safety over the lives of others. Once again, his wife refused a seat as well.
Passengers remarked that what they saw was a “most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion.”
The couple was last seen sitting side by side on the deck of the ship.
Sources:
Greenbaum, Samuel. “Isidor Straus.” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, no. 22, 1914, pp. 235–39. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43057958. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024.
"Isidor Straus." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidor_Straus
"Ida Straus." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Straus
Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Foundation, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ida_and_Isidor_Straus.jpg