As a consequence of the British blockade of the German coastline, she was used as an accommodations ship (barracks) for approximately 1,000 U-boat trainees of the 2nd Submarine Training Division in the port of Gdynia, which had been occupied by Germany and renamed Gotenhafen, located near Danzig. . Her purposes were to provide recreational and cultural activities for German functionaries and workers, including concerts, cruises, and other holiday trips, and to serve as a public relations tool that would present "a more acceptable image of the Third Reich". Even as it was preparing to depart the harbor, the ship was still picking up more human cargo, another 600 from the steamer Reval, for example. An estimated 9,000 passengers were killed in the sinking, making it the greatest maritime disaster in history. [12] Alexander Marinesko, the Soviet submarine-commander who torpedoed the Gustloff was shunned by almost everyone, even in Russia. The Gustloff was ordered to bring the soldiers of the 2nd Submarine Training Division to western Germany. [31], Coordinates: 550422N 172517E / 55.0729N 17.4213E / 55.0729; 17.4213, Kriegsmarine Coastal Forces Gordon Williamson, page 39, Osprey Publishing 2009. All four captains on Wilhelm Gustloff survived her sinking, but an official naval inquiry was started only against Wilhelm Zahn. At around 9 pm (CET), Marinesko ordered his crew to launch four torpedoes at Wilhelm Gustloff's port side, about 30km (16nmi; 19mi) offshore, between Groendorf and Leba. Founder of the Nationalsocialist Party of Switzerland, German Orientalisms|By Todd Curtis Kontje | P.222, Learn how and when to remove this template message, List of Nazis who died in the Beer Hall Putsch, "A Survey of Nazi and Pro-Nazi Groups in Switzerland: 1930-1945", "I Kill a Nazi Gauleiter:Memoir of a Jewish Assassin", "Why the Shooting in Ankara Won't Start World War III", "David Frankfurter, Who Killed Swiss Nazi Leader, Pardoned; Served Nine Years", Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes. The oar-powered lifeboat was unable to come aside Pegaway in the heavy seas and looked in danger of needing rescuing. She was to have large communal halls and open decks so that passengers could make optimum use of the space offered by the ship. The recorded numbers contradict one another, and we probably never will know how many people were on board the ship. Wilhelm Gustloff was a rabid anti-Semite - who was assassinated by the Serbian citizen named 'David Frankfurter' (1909-1982) - a member of the Jewish diaspora. On 8 April 1938 Wilhelm Gustloff, under the command of Captain Lbbe, departed Hamburg for England, where she anchored over 5.6 kilometres (3nmi) offshore from Tilbury so as to remain in international waters. The Gustloff held about 1,400 people, but in order to make room for more passengers, the Germans took all of the furniture off the ship [and . The ships complement and passenger lists cited 6,050 people on board, but this did not include many civilians who boarded the ship without being recorded in the official embarkation records. [4], Frankfurter surrendered immediately to the Swiss police, confessing "I fired the shots because I am a Jew". As near as was possible, her cabins were all to be the same size. Of the original '1,252' rescued from the water . Heinz Schn, a German archivist and Gustloff survivor who carried out extensive research into the sinking during the 1980s and 1990s, concluded that Wilhelm Gustloff was carrying a crew of 173 (naval armed forces auxiliaries), 918 officers, NCOs, and men of the 2 Unterseeboot-Lehrdivision, 373 female naval auxiliary helpers, 162 wounded soldiers, and 8,956 civilians of which an estimated 5,000 were children, for a total of 10,582 passengers and crew. [17], Many deaths were caused either directly by the torpedoes or drowning in the onrushing water. His degree of responsibility was never resolved, however, because of Nazi Germanys collapse in 1945. Despite the high number of civilian deaths, allegations that sinking the Gustloff constituted a war crime are largely unfounded, because of the presence of weapons and nearly 1,000 military personnel on board. While officials argued, refugees kept pouring into the port, until by mid-January, Pillau was bulging with some 100,000 desperate civilians. The Wilhelm Gustloff sank after being hit by Russian torpedoes on Jan. 30, 1945. The submarine sensor on board the escorting torpedo boat had frozen, rendering it inoperable as had Wilhelm Gustloffs anti-aircraft guns, leaving the vessels defenceless. After undertaking a further voyage on 14 to 19 April 1938, the ship went on an Osterfahrt (Easter Voyage) before her actual official maiden voyage, which was undertaken from 21 April to 6 May 1938, when she joined Der Deutsche, Oceania and Sierra Cordoba on a group cruise to the Madeira Islands. About 1,000 German naval officers and men were aboard and died in the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff. What was the name of Franz Ferdinands assassin? In fact, we might say it was the worst. The second torpedo (For the Soviet people) hit just ahead of midships. Consider what happened to the German ship Wilhelm Gustloffon the evening of January 30, 1945, seventy-five years ago. The ship was named for the leader of the Swiss Nazi Party, who had been assassinated on February 4, 1936, and it was launched in the presence of Adolf Hitler on May 5, 1937. During the summer of 1939, she was pressed into service to bring the Condor Legion back from Spain after the victory of theNationalist forces under General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Obviously Hitler can not bear to bring more bad news to his collapsing regime. Beginning on January 21, 1945, an estimated two million Germans were brought to the west in an operation that far exceeded the British evacuation at Dunkirk. At 9:16 pm the Gustloff was hit by three torpedoes and proceeded to sink over the course of one hour. ), This page was last edited on 19 October 2022, at 04:00. The figures from the research of Heinz Schn make the total lost in the sinking to be 9,343 total, including about 5,000 children.[. Here, rumor had it, they would be evacuated to the west. The passengers besides civilians included Gestapo personnel, members of the Todt organization and Nazi officials with their families. She had twenty two lifeboats and twelve transverse bulkheads creating thirteen watertight compartments. US $5.15. 6, with a crew of ten under the command of Second Officer Schrmann, was then lowered. The second torpedo hit the accommodations for the womens naval auxiliary (located in the ships drained swimming pool); only three of the 373 quartered there survived. [9] On 29 March she departed on her second voyage carrying workers and their families from the Blohm & Voss shipyard on a three-day cruise.[9]. Add to cart. Wilhelm Gustloff, in full Motor Vessel Wilhelm Gustloff, German ocean liner that was sunk by a Soviet submarine on January 30, 1945. Admiral Karl Dnitz felt that the earlier the evacuation took place, the better its chance of success, a reasonable assumption. Cargo and machinery were washed from Pegaway's decks and the ship lost maneuverability as the storm increased in intensity. When Adolf Hitler launched the Wilhelm Gustloff from the seaside city of Hamburg on May 5, 1937, hundreds of German workers and Nazi party officials gathered to witness the spectacle.Flags and swastika banners festooned the quay and arms raised in the notorious Heil Hitler salute as the ship sailed forth showing an uneasy world the full industrial might of Nazi Germany. The first torpedo caused the watertight doors to seal off the bow which contained the crews quarters where off-duty crew members were sleeping. However, based on the latest estimates of passenger numbers and those known to be saved, Wilhelm Gustloff remains the largest loss of life resulting from the sinking of one vessel in maritime history. To the German worker, the Gustloff was to be the ultimate prize and reward as a holiday for all his hard work. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. An estimated 9,000 passengers were killed in the sinking, making it the greatest maritime disaster in history. Wilhelm Gustloff as a hospital ship. [6] After completing sea trials in the North Sea from 15 to 16 March 1938 she was handed over to her owners.[7]. info@nationalww2museum.org Those who survived the initial onslaught and did not manage to flee, had to eke out a living on a battleground ravaged by incessant bombardment and street fighting. In order to protect the property on board the war grave, as well as the wreck itself and the surrounding environment, the Polish Maritime Office in Gdynia has forbidden diving within a 500m (1,600ft) radius of the wreck. [14], The ship's complement and passenger lists cited 6,050 people on board, but these did not include many passengers who boarded the ship without being recorded in the official embarkation records. Filmed in Gotenhafen, the 2nd Submarine Training Division acted as extras in the movie.Wilhelm Gustloff sat dockside for over four years, until she was put back in service to transport civilians and military personnel as part of Operation Hannibal. 1, with a crew of twelve under the command of Second Officer Meyer. Learn how and when to remove this template message, List by death toll of ships sunk by submarines, "The Forgotten Maritime Tragedy Deadlier Than the Titanic", "The Forgotten Maritime Tragedy That Was 6 Times Deadlier Than the Titanic", "Voyages on board the Wilhelm Gustloff & Robert Ley", "London Polling Station: Annexation of Austria", "The 'Official' Maiden Voyage of the Wilhelm Gustloff April 21st, 1938 - May 6th, 1938", "Lwe Torpedoboot 19401959 Sleipner Class", The Avalon Project Laws of War: Adaptation to Maritime War of the Principles of the Geneva Convention (Hague X); 18 October 1907, maritimeEXODUS The Evacuation Model for the Marine Environment, "Translation of Marinesko page from www.warheroes.ru", "ZARZDZENIE PORZDKOWE NR 9 DYREKTORA URZDU MORSKIEGO W GDYNI z dnia 23 maja 2006 r. w sprawie zakazu nurkowania na wrakach statkw-mogiach wojennych", The Greatest Marine Disaster in Historyand why you probably never heard of it, Shipwreck Expedition May 2003, led by Mike Boring, Details, map and position info on www.wrecksite.eu, Schiff ohne Klassen - Die Wilhelm Gustloff, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MV_Wilhelm_Gustloff&oldid=1117199413, Used as floating barracks for the Second Submarine Training Division until the vessel returned to active service ferrying civilians and military personnel as part of, 1,465 passengers (as designed) in 489 cabins. It was terrible, but it was a result of war, a terrible result of war.. By one estimate 9,400 people died, which would make it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history. As many as half a million civilians remained in Stalingrad when the Germans approached in the late summer of 1942. The Wilhelm Gustloff (1945): The deadliest shipwreck in history. It was packed with nearly 8,000 Germans, most of them women and children escaping from the advancing Soviet Army. The local Reichs Defense Commissar, Gauleiter Eric Koch, was an ardent Nazi who didnt want to appear weak in the eyes of the Fhrer. Danzig, 23 September 1939. On January 25 the ship started taking other refugees on board, and by the afternoon of January 29 the count had reached 7,956 when registration was stopped. About 9,400 lives were lost, the greatest death toll from the sinking of a single vessel in human history. Wilhelm Gustloffs final voyage was to evacuate German refugees and military personnel as well as technicians who worked at advanced weapon bases in the Balticfrom Gdynia, then known to the Germans as Gotenhafen, to Kiel. Due to the collapse of Nazi Germany, no inquiry into the incident was resolved. With the exception of minor mention in a couple of newspapers, it also remains largely unreported in western Allied countries. Official bulletins in the Soviet Union make no mention of it. The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German ship which was sunk on 30 January 1945 by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German civilians, officials and military personnel from Gdynia (Gotenhafen), occupied Poland, as the Red Army advanced. Ernst Wilhelm Bohle was the first at Gustloff's funeral to recite a few lines in his honour. Before sinking Wilhelm Gustloff, Alexander Marinesko was facing a court martial due to his problems with alcohol and was thus deemed not suitable to be a hero for his actions and was instead awarded the Order of the Red Banner. How many died on Titanic? Was it a war crime? By comparison, the Titanic could take over three thousand passengers and crew. This was the same for both passengers and crew, to create a feeling of equality onboard shipalthough only the passenger cabins would be permitted to have oceanfront views. About twenty minutes after the torpedoes' impact, Wilhelm Gustloff suddenly listed so dramatically to port that the lifeboats lowered on the high starboard side crashed into the ship's tilting side, destroying many lifeboats and spilling their occupants. There were, however, a number of female naval auxiliaries amongst the passengers. The people who were allowed to travel on the Kraft durch Freude flagship were chosen by the party. Shortly after noon on January 30, the Gustloff left the harbour. The Wilhelm Gustloff was the most lethal shipwreck in history, but some details of the. World War II is filled with events that can only be described in superlatives: the biggest, the bravest, the fastest, and so on. Against the advice of the military commander, Lieutenant Commander Wilhelm Zahn (a submariner who argued for a course in shallow waters close to shore and without lights), the Gustloffs captainFriedrich Petersendecided to head for deep water which was known to have been cleared of mines. There are barely enough lifejackets to go around and certainly not enough lifeboats. The story was not well known as there had been some conspiracy theories behind the tragedy. [9] The closest of the ships that answered the distress call was Wilhelm Gustloff, which reached Pegaway at 6 am. Lying in wait in the dark waters of the Baltic Sea was the Soviet submarine S-13 under Captain Alexander Marinesko. For the last several days of its existence, before soldiers of the United States Seventh Army arrived, Dachau was a small, self-enclosed universe of decay and death. Operation Hannibal was the naval evacuation of German troops and civilians from Poland and the Baltic states as the Red Army advanced. Less than a week after the sinking, S-13 sank another ship, General von Steuben, killing a further 4,500 people. By 4 April, it was taking on water and slowly sinking. They said the tragedy of Wilhelm Gustloff was a war crime. Thousands of Hitler Youth members lined the route. Within years of his successful action against the Gustloff, Marinesko had been Discharged from the Soviet Navy. Arrested and sent to Siberia for three years hard labour. Diagnosed with cancer. Reinstated with his title of captain. Given a military pension. Given a ceremony honouring his actions during the Second World War.Just three weeks after these last three incidents, Marinesko died, in October of 1963. Indeed, most of the ships actual crew was trapped in the forecastle, behind watertight doors that had locked automatically upon impact. The disaster remains relatively unknown. Aleksandr Marinesko, maneuvered his submarine between the Gustloff and the coast, as an attack from that direction would be least expected. The Gustloff started on its maiden voyage on March 24, 1938, and over the course of 17 months it went on some 50 cruises, transporting some 65,000 vacationers. The dead numbered between 6,000-9,000. Eventually, Wilhelm Gustloff was put back into service transporting civilians and military personnel as part of Operation Hannibal. To continue the feeling of equality, there would only be one class onboard ship the cruise-class. Because he was worried about the Gustloffs engines failing after years of sitting idle, Capt. Command squabbles delayed the departure of Wilhelm Gustloff until midday January 30, escorted only by a pair of torpedo boats. The ship was originally intended to be named Adolf Hitler but instead was christened after Wilhelm Gustloff, leader of the Nazi Party's Swiss branch, who had been assassinated by a Jewish medical student in 1936. Between 20 May and 2 June 1939, Wilhelm Gustloff was diverted from her pleasure cruises. Hitler did not want to risk any domestic bouts of antisemitism to cause Germany to lose the recently awarded right to host the 1936 Summer Olympics, since his antisemitic policies had already led to calls to relocate the games.[6]. Updates? Unterseeboot-Lehrdivision) in the port of Gdynia, which had been occupied by Germany and renamed Gotenhafen, located near Danzig (Gdask). Using software called maritime EXODUS it was estimated 9,400 people died out of more than 10,600 on board. The three torpedoes which were fired successfully all struck Wilhelm Gustloff on her port side. At 4 am, Captain G. W. Ward of Pegaway issued an SOS when the ship was 20 nautical miles (37km) northwest of the island of Terschelling, off the coast of the Netherlands. He was replaced by Friedrich Petersen, who commanded Wilhelm Gustloff for the remainder of the cruise. [5] He was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment and spent the war in a Swiss prison. From September 1939 to November 1940, Wilhelm Gustloff served as a hospital ship, officially designated Lazarettschiff D. Beginning on 20 November 1940, medical equipment was removed from the ship and she was repainted from the hospital ship colors of white with a green stripe to standard naval grey. In 1933[citation needed] the Nazi Party created the Wilhelm-Gustloff-Stiftung ("The Wilhelm Gustloff Foundation"), a national corporation funded by properties and wealth confiscated from Jews. Aside from history books and documentaries, the story of the Gustloff has been the subject of several feature films and fictional works, including the novella Im Krebsgang (2002; Crabwalk) by Gnter Grass. [24], Many ships were sunk during the war by the Allies and by the Axis Powers. It is one of the largest shipwrecks on the Baltic Sea floor and has attracted much interest from treasure hunters searching for the lost Amber Room. As it had a motor, it was better able to handle the waves. Measuring 208.5m (684ft 1in) long by 23.59m (77ft 5in) wide, with a capacity of 25,484gross register tons(GRT), she was launched on 5 May 1937. Wilhelm Gustloff was the first purpose-built cruise ship for the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF) and used by subsidiary organisation Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude, KdF). Torpedoboot T-36 rescued 564 people, Torpedoboot Lwe 472 people, Minensuchboot M387 98 people, Minensuchboot M375 43 people, Minensuchboot M341 37 people, steamer Gottingen saved 28 people, Torpedofangboot TF19 saved 7, freighter Gotland 2 people, and Vorpostenboot 1703 saved one person, a 1 year-old child. Less than 40 minutes after being struck, Wilhelm Gustloff was lying on her side. The "Reichskristallnacht" Pogrom of the 9/10 November 1938. Author Ruta Sepetys likes to look for what she calls "hidden chapters of. Omissions? The small arms factory Berlin Suhler Waffen und Fahrzeugwerke was renamed Wilhelm Gustloff Werke in Gustloff's honour in 1939. When they arrived in Pillau, these refugees found not salvation, but chaos. On January 30, 1945, some 9,000 people perished aboard this German ocean liner after it was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine and sank in the frigid waters of the Baltic Sea. When he was informed by a mysterious radio message of an oncoming German minesweeper convoy, Petersen decided to activate his ship's red and green navigation lights so as to avoid a collision in the dark, making Wilhelm Gustloff easy to spot in the dark. Heinz Schns more recent research is backed up by estimates made by a different method. This allowed her to act as a floating polling station for German and Austrian citizens living in England who wished to vote on the approaching plebiscite on Germany's unification with Austria. Eighty years ago, the Red Army managed to stop, contain, and ultimately defeat the largest German army on the Eastern Front. In all, around 9,600 people died in the disaster. The three huge holes in the ships hull causes a dangerous list to Port and the ice on the ships boat-deck sends many people sliding into the freezing January waters. Not that it would have mattered much. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Three of them hit home, striking Wilhelm Gustloff on the bow, stern, and amidships. The Wilhelm Gustloff was considered one of the biggest naval disasters ever recorded in history. . Lampshaded when a flabbergasted Somerset Maugham hears this story and says he's never even heard of the ''Wilhelm Gustloff''. In 1963 Marinesko was given the traditional ceremony due to a captain upon his successful return from a mission. An overwhelming majority of them were women and children. The Wilhelm Gustloff (1945): The deadliest shipwreck in history. The submarine sensor on board the escorting torpedo boat had frozen, rendering it inoperable, as had her anti-aircraft guns, leaving the vessels defenseless. Lifeboat No. The ship left Gotenhafen at 12:30 pm on 30 January 1945, accompanied by two torpedo boats and the passenger liner Hansa, which was carrying civilians and military personnel. He has become a marked man his character deemed less than compatible with the Soviet ideal. Marinesko was posthumously named a Hero of the Soviet Union by Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. [6] On May 17, 1945[7] shortly after V-E Day Frankfurter was pardoned by a Swiss court.[7]. The Gustloff did not meet any minesweepers on its way. Wilhelm Gustloff sank within an hour. Marinesko followed the ships for two hours before launching three torpedoes at Wilhelm Gustloffs port side about 30km (16nmi; 19mi) offshore between Groendorf and Leba soon after 21:00 (CET), hitting it with all three (Marinesko intended to fire four torpedoes but the fourth misfired and the crew had to disarm it) The first torpedo (with text written on it: For the Motherland) struck near the port bow. On February 10, just 11 days after the sinking, S-13 sank another German ship, General von Steuben, killing about 3,000 people. Today, the Wilhelm Gustloff is a protected war-grave. She served as a hospital ship in 1939 and 1940. Who was known as the Iron Chancellor? 6, with both them and the crew of the lifeboat back at Wilhelm Gustloff by 7:45 am. Gustloff was given a state funeral in his birthplace of Schwerin in Mecklenburg, with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Gring, Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann and Joachim von Ribbentrop in attendance. During 10 April, 1,172 Germans and 806 Austrian eligible voters were ferried between the docks at Tilbury to the ship where 1,968 votes were cast in favour of the union and ten voted against. The ship left Gotenhafen early on 30 January 1945, accompanied by the passenger liner Hansa, also filled with civilians and military personnel, and two torpedo boats. She sank bow-first ten minutes later, in 44m (144ft) of water. Once again, the figure depends on the initial figure for those on board. Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, Black Thursday October 14, 1943: The Second Schweinfurt Bombing Raid, An Exercise in Depravity: The Establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto, Unsung Witnesses of the Battle of Stalingrad, Stalingrad: Experimentation, Adaptation, Implementation, The Last Days of the Dachau Concentration Camp, A Shocking Level of Brutality and Degradation: Dachau in Wartime, Dachau, the Model Concentration Camp, 1933-39. This makes the destruction of Wilhelm Gustloff the largest loss of life in the sinking of any single ship. He remained its leader from 1932 until he was assassinated in 1936. There is no telling how the back half of the season will . From the Irish famine to Lady Godiva, journey through European history in this quiz. The first struck the ship's bow, causing watertight doors to seal off the area where off-duty crew members were sleeping. The German cruise ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff was named for Gustloff by the Nazi regime. [18] The ship had four captains (Wilhelm Gustloff's captain, two merchant marine captains, and the captain of the U-boat complement housed on the vessel) on board, and they disagreed on the best course of action to guard against submarine attacks. The ship was sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13 on 30 January 1945 (coincidentally the 50th anniversary of her namesake's birth) in the Baltic Sea while carrying civilian refugees and military personnel from the advancing Red Army. No help was at hand. eBay item number: 155228731936. 1 had been so badly damaged by the waves that after its crew had climbed up via ladders to the safety of their ship it was set adrift, to later be washed up on the shores of Terschelling on 2 May. Capt. [22] His more recent research is backed up by estimates arrived at by a different method. Obviously Hitler can not bear to bring more bad news to his collapsing regime. W. Somerset Maugham is a main character. The last months of the Third Reich featured scenes of unimaginable confusion, and this was no exception. It ran the Gustloff Werke ("Gustloff Factories"), a group of businesses that had been confiscated from their Jewish owners or partners. Moreover, he manages to sink one more significant target on February 9, 1945 before returning to base (the Steuben over 15,000 tons and 3,000 lives sinking in only seven minutes). Adolf Hitler decided on the name change after sitting next to Gustloff's widow during his memorial service. [30], In 2006, a bell recovered from the wreck and subsequently used as a decoration in a Polish seafood restaurant was lent to the privately funded "Forced Paths" exhibition in Berlin. So far, our main character has died seventeen times overall with six of those deaths come from season 2 so far. 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To a Captain upon his successful action against the Gustloff and the ship lost maneuverability the. Directly by the ship theories behind the tragedy of equality, there would only be one class onboard the. June 1939, Wilhelm Gustloff by the Allies and by the torpedoes or drowning the! Was not well known as the Red Army managed to stop, contain, and we probably will... The crews quarters where off-duty crew members were sleeping the 2nd submarine Training Division to western Germany loss... Revise the article causing watertight doors that had locked automatically upon impact consider what happened to the ship... Estimated 9,000 passengers were killed in the heavy seas and looked in danger of needing rescuing on her port.! Software called maritime EXODUS it was estimated 9,400 people died out of more than 10,600 on the! 40 minutes after being struck, Wilhelm Gustloff on her port side style manual or sources... The advancing Soviet Army und Fahrzeugwerke was renamed Wilhelm Gustloff on her side, until by mid-January, Pillau bulging. The course of one hour honour in 1939 and 1940. who was known as there been!
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