Through the Red Army’s advance in January 1945, the land route for the Germans in East Prussia was cut off and people were flocking to the harbors, waiting for further transport. With the so-called Hannibal order, the Kriegsmarine was allowed to transport civilians, which ultimately saved millions of people from the former German East.
The former cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff, now in the service of the Kriegsmarine, took in thousands of refugees. The exact number remains unclear, possibly up to 10,000, but it is certain that the ship was overcrowded. In addition to the refugees, there was also military personnel, including wounded, naval auxiliaries and aspiring U-boat commanders, on board.
The ship set sail from Gotenhafen on January 30, 1945, at noon. Around 9 pm, the Soviet submarine S-13 discovered the ship in the deeper waters off Pomerania and fired four torpedoes, of which three hit the Wilhelm Gustloff. The ship sank within an hour.
On board, horrific scenes unfolded. Due to the icy temperatures, the lifeboats were frozen and only a few could be launched into the water (which would not have been enough for all the passengers anyway). The panic-stricken crowd trampled anyone who got in their way. Those who fell into the water had a slim chance of survival, with water temperatures around zero degrees and an air temperature of -18°C. The people in the lifeboats held back those in the water with oars, fearing the boats would capsize. Ultimately, only 1,252 survivors were rescued, with over 9,000 people perishing. This makes the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff the greatest maritime disaster in history.
The evaluation of this tragedy is still disputed today. Some German politicians consider the torpedoing of the Wilhelm Gustloff a war crime, while others, including the late historian Axel Schildt, argue that it was a consequence of the war started by Germany and that innocent victims were also to be lamented. The decisions of the four captains of the Wilhelm Gustloff are still hotly debated today.
Interestingly, the Soviet submarine commander Alexander Marinesko, who sank the Wilhelm Gustloff and later the “Steuben” was long disputed in his home country. He did not receive the Order of the Hero of the Soviet Union and it was difficult for him to reestablish himself after the war. It was only under the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev that he was posthumously awarded the coveted order. Today, there are memorials to Marinesko in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
In Germany, the tragedy of the Wilhelm Gustloff was made known to a broader public through the film “Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen” (1960) and Günter Grass’s novella “Im Krebsgang” (2002). On the 80th anniversary of the event, mainly northern German newspapers remembered the dead of the Wilhelm Gustloff, while official Germany struggled with the task of commemoration, with no official memorial services, for example, from the German Navy, known.
The Soviet Union, too, had maritime disasters to lament during World War II. The evacuation of Tallinn in the late summer of 1941 through the Finnish Gulf to Kronstadt turned into a disaster, as British historian and journalist Anna Reid described in her book about the Leningrad Blockade. Of the 228 ships in the convoy, 65 were lost due to Finnish and German mines, U-boats and torpedo boats. Of the nearly 23,000 passengers, 14,000 did not reach their destination. Among the dead were Soviet military and civilians. Anna Reid calls this operation the greatest tragedy in the history of the Russian Navy. So, both nations have reason to mourn.