The greatest maritime disaster in history. The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

Video Description

This is the Baltic Sea looking north from a headland close to the northernmost point in modern day Poland. Not far from where I am standing occurred the largest and second largest martime disasters of all time, with losses several times that of the far more famous Titanic. This is the story of the sinking of the ship that caused more deaths than any other in history. In the winter of 1944 – 1945, the war was decidedly lost for Nazi Germany. This was obvious to everyone but not everyone reacted until it was far too late. At the end of January 1945, as the Red Army raced unstoppably west through Poland and East Prussia towards Königsberg and Gdańsk, mass panic set in amongst the German civilian population. Terrified by Goebbels propaganda and possibly also from eye witness accounts from soliders on leave about the ferocity of the Soviet troops, the largest exodus in human history took place on foot or with horse-drawn carriages in temperatures which reached minus twenty at night. Most of these refugees were women, very old men and children as men and boys between 14 and 60 had been conscripted to fight in the Volksturm, the Nazi version of the Home Guard. As the Soviet forces cut off East Prussia by reaching the Vistula lagoon to the north of Elbląg, the only way across this body of water is by crossing the ice. The terrified refugees were harried by Soviet aircraft just as the Luftwaffe had done to refugees in Belgium, France and the Soviet Union. What these people wanted was to find refuge further west, either by reaching Gdańsk and a train that will take them out of their misery or, if that were not possible, then a ship from Gdynia. The National Socialist Community Kraft durch Freude ( KdF ) was founded on 27 November 1933 as an organization of the German Labor Front (DAF). Its aim was to fullfill the Nazi regime's aim of establishing an ethnic peoples community of all Germans through providing leisure activities. With the Amt für Reisen, Wandern und Urlaub (Office for Travel, Hiking and Holidays) , KdF was the largest tour operator during the National Socialist era . Part of what the KdF provided was amongst other things holidays, which included the largest holiday camp ever built and, up until that time, the largest cruise liner ever built. This cruise liner was the Wilhelm Gustloff. The Wilhelm Gustloff was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg for the German Labour Front or KdF in happier times for Nazi Germany. The shipowner was thus the DAF; however, the Wilhelm Gustloff was managed, crewed and maintained by the Hamburg-South American Steamship Company (HSDG)/ It was launched on 5 May 1937 in the presence of Adolf Hitler. On 15 March 1938 the ship was completed. Its maiden voyage commenced on 23 March of the same year. The architect Woldemar Brinkmann had been commissioned with the interior design. It was to be a "ship without classes", the interior of the cabins for passengers and crew members was essentially the same. For the passengers there were 224 two- and 233 four-bed cabins with one and two bunk beds respectively . In addition, three cabins furnished with three bunk beds were reserved for larger families. Each cabin had a wardrobe for each occupant, one or two sinks with running cold and warm water, and a seating area consisting of a table, chairs, and a sofa. As was still common practice on passenger ships of the time, the toilets, showers and bathtubs as communal facilities were outside the cabins, but were separate for passengers and crew. There a large lounge with 60 seats in front of a swimming pool. It was not entirely a ship without class as the Hitler Youth (HJ) and the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BdM) had a "floating youth hostel "with accommodation which was not quite as good and private as for the other guests. 40 individual cabins were available for members of the ship's command, engineers, mechanics, radio operators, doctors and tour guides. The remaining crew lived in 39 two-bed and 77 four-bed cabins. Should Hitler and his entourage ever decided to use the ship, there were rooms set aside. Hitler never used the facilities. To the left of Hitler’s potential accommodation, there was a a smaller suite with bathroom reserved for NSDAP Reichsleiter Robert Ley who was in charge of the KdF. This meant that there were beds for a maximum of 1471 passengers (including the floating youth hostel and what was dubbed the "leader's rooms") and 426 crew members. The 22 lifeboats had enough space for these 1897 people. Although the Wilhelm Gustloff was designed as a passenger ship, use as a hospital ship was also taken into account from the outset . This is a clear demonstration that although the theoretical use for providing holidays for the masses was foreseen, the Nazis had considered the military use right from the start. When constructed, the Wilhelm Gustloff, was the largest cruise ship in the world. It measured over 208 meters long and was almost 24 meters wide.