Wilhelm Gustloff, sunk by Marinesco on January 30, 1945, was a German ten-deck passenger a cruise ship, one of the first ships of this type in the world. Hitler was not only a good organizer, he was also an outstanding social manipulator and demagogue .. Built with funds from the organization "Strength through Joy" (German: Kraft durch Freude - KdF it was such a Hitler analogue of the Soviet All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, a huge trade union collective farm). The ship was named in honor of the assassinated Nazi party leader Wilhelm Gustloff. At the time of construction, it was one of the largest passenger ships.
Launched on May 5, 1937 at the Hamburg shipyard Blohm + Voss. The launching ceremony was attended by Adolf Hitler himself and the main leaders of the Nazi party in Germany. The traditional bottle of champagne was smashed against the side of the liner by Gustloff's widow. Until the outbreak of World War II, the ship was used as a floating holiday home. Made 50 cruises off the coast of Europe.
In September 1939, the ship was transferred to the naval forces and converted into a floating hospital with 500 beds. It was used as an infirmary during the hostilities of the German army in Poland.
Since 1940, it was once again converted, now into a floating barracks. Used as a training vessel of the 2nd training diving division in the port of Gotenhafen (Gdynia).
This liner sank off the coast of Poland on January 30, 1945 after a torpedo attack by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of A. I. Marinesko. C-13 planted three torpedoes into the ship. He had no chance. After 42, the submariners of the USSR stopped saving torpedoes and began to fire them in a fan, three or four pieces each. You can't dodge here! The shipwreck is considered one of the largest disasters in maritime history humanity. The exact composition and number of passengers on board the ship is still unknown. According to official data, 5348 people died in it, according to estimates of a number of historians, the real losses could exceed 9000, including 5000 children. Most likely, up to 10 thousand people died. Small town population, all at once!
Back in 1933, after the coming to power of the National Socialist German (note the workers 'party !!!) workers' party led by Adolf Hitler, one of its activities was the creation of a system of social security and services, which would increase social support for Nazi policies among the population Germany. Already in the mid-1930s, the ordinary German worker, in terms of the level of services and benefits that he was entitled to, favorably distinguished from workers in other European countries. To spread and strengthen the influence of the ideas of National Socialism and organize wide access of the working class to social benefits, organizations such as "Strength through Joy", which was part of the German Labor Front, were created (Hitler adored different fronts ... Although front, this is a terrible word .. .). The main goal of this organization was to create a system of recreation and travel for German workers. To fulfill this goal, among other things, an entire fleet of passenger ships was built to provide cheap and affordable travel and cruises. The flagship of this fleet was to be a new comfortable liner, which the authors of the project initially planned to name after the German Fuhrer. But then on February 4, 1936, in Davos, Jewish medical student David Frankfurter killed a previously little-known Swiss NSDAP activist Wilhelm Gustloff. The story of his death became scandalous, especially in Germany, given the nationality of the killer. In the light of the propaganda of the ideas of National Socialism, the case of the murder of a German, moreover, the leader of the National Socialists of Switzerland, became an excellent confirmation of the Nazi theory of a conspiracy of world Jewry against the German people. From one of the rank-and-file leaders of foreign Nazis, Wilhelm Gustloff, through the efforts of Goebbels' propaganda, quickly turned into a "symbol of suffering" (the so-called Blutzeuge). He was buried with state honors, a wide variety of objects, the darkness of streets and squares were named in his honor throughout Germany. All then had to be renamed back, when the "thousand-year" Reich for 12 years was covered with a copper basin.
In this regard, when in 1937 a cruise ship ordered from the Blohm + Voss shipyard was ready for launch, the Nazi leadership decided to perpetuate the name of the "hero of the National Socialist cause and suffering for the German people." On Hitler's initiative, it was decided to name the new liner Wilhelm Gustloff.
From a technological point of view, the Wilhelm Gustloff was not an exceptional vessel. The liner was designed for 1500 people, had ten decks. Its engines were of medium power, and it was not built for fast travel at all, but rather for slow, comfortable cruises. And in terms of amenities, equipment and recreational facilities, this ship was indeed one of the best in the world. One of the newest technologies used on it was the principle of open, but covered with extra strong glass, decks with cabins that had direct access to it and a clear view of the landscape. This glass, when torpedoed by a ship, increased the number of victims by hundreds of people. People could not leave the deck. They were provided with a luxuriously decorated pool, winter Garden, large spacious halls, music salons, several bars and cafes. Unlike other ships of its class, the Wilhelm Gustloff, in confirmation of the "classless nature" of the Nazi regime, had cabins of the same size and the same level of comfort for all passengers.
In addition to purely technical innovations and the best devices for an unforgettable journey, Wilhelm Gustloff, which cost 25 million Reichsmarks, was a kind of symbol and an effective propaganda tool for the authorities of the Third Reich. According to Robert Lei, who headed the German Labor Front (another front ...), liners like this could “... provide an opportunity, at the will of the Fuehrer, to the locksmiths of Bavaria, postmen of Cologne, housewives of Bremen at least once a year to carry out the price of a sea trip to warm Madeira, along the Mediterranean coast, to the shores of Norway and Africa. "
For German citizens, traveling on the Wilhelm Gustloff was to be not only unforgettable, but also affordable, regardless of social status. For example, a five-day cruise along the coast of Italy on a motor ship cost only 150 Reichsmarks, while the average monthly salary of an ordinary German was 150-250 Reichsmarks (the cost of a ticket on this liner was only a third of the price of such cruises in Europe, where only representatives could afford them. wealthy strata of the population or the nobility). Thus, Wilhelm Gustloff, with its conveniences, level of comfort and accessibility, strengthened the disposition of the German people to the Nazi regime, and also had to demonstrate to the whole world the achievements and advantages of National Socialism.
After the ceremonial launching of the ship, 10 months passed before the Gustloff passed sea trials in May 1938. During this time, the finishing and arrangement of the interior of the liner was completed. As a thank you to the builders, the ship was taken on a two-day cruise in the North Sea, which qualified as a test one. The first official cruise took place on May 24, 1938, and almost two-thirds of its passengers were citizens of Austria, which Hitler dreamed of joining Germany with the full delight of the Austrians. An unforgettable journey was aimed at stunning the level of service and convenience of the Austrians - the cruise participants - and to convince everyone of the advantages of an alliance with the mighty Germany. The cruise was a real triumph, a testament to the achievements of the new government in Germany. The press all over the world enthusiastically described the experience of the cruise participants and the unprecedented luxury on board. Hitler himself arrived on the liner, symbolizing all the best achievements of the country under his leadership.
Although Wilhelm Gustloff offered truly unforgettable and cheap travel and cruises, it has also remained in history as a vivid means of skillfully promoting and popularizing the Nazi regime. The first successful, though not planned, incident occurred during the rescue of sailors from the English ship "Pegway", which was in distress on April 2, 1938 in the North Sea. The courage and determination of the captain, who left the procession of three ships to save the British, was noted not only by the world press, but also by the British government - the captain was awarded, and a memorial plaque was later installed on the ship. Thanks to this occasion, when on April 10, Wilhelm Gustloff is used as a floating polling station for the Germans and Austrians of Great Britain participating in the plebiscite on the annexation of Austria, all publications have already written about it favorably. To participate in the plebiscite, nearly 2,000 citizens of both countries and a large number of correspondents sailed into neutral waters off the coast of Great Britain. Only four of the participants in this event abstained from voting in favor. The Western, and even the British communist press was delighted with the liner and the achievements of the new Germany.
As the flagship of the cruise fleet, Wilhelm Gustloff spent only one and a half years at sea and during this time performed 50 cruises within the framework of the Power through Joy program. It was visited by about 65,000 vacationers. Usually, in the warm season of the year, the liner offered travels in the North Sea, along the coast of Germany, along the Norwegian fjords. In winter, the liner went on cruises along the Mediterranean Sea, the coasts of Italy, Spain and Portugal. For many, despite minor inconveniences such as the ban on landings in countries that did not support the Nazi regime, these cruises remained unforgettable and the most best time from the entire period of Nazi rule in Germany. Many ordinary Germans used the services of the “Strength through Joy” program and were sincerely grateful to the new regime for providing recreation opportunities that cannot be compared with those of the population in other European countries.
In addition to cruising activities, Wilhelm Gustloff, while remaining a state-owned vessel, was involved in various activities carried out by the German government. So on May 20, 1939, Wilhelm Gustloff first transported troops - German volunteers of the Condor Legion, which took part in the Spanish Civil War on the side of Franco. The arrival of the ship in Hamburg with "war heroes" on board caused a great resonance throughout Germany, and a meeting was held at the port of an exceptional scale and splendor.
The last cruise of the liner took place on August 25, 1939. Unexpectedly, during this planned voyage in the middle of the North Sea, the captain received an encrypted order to urgently return to port. Cruise time was over - less than a week later Germany invaded Poland and World War II began.
Later, a small messenger ship, which arrived at the scene of the tragedy of the liner on January 30, 1945, unexpectedly found, seven hours after the sinking of the liner, among hundreds of dead bodies, an unnoticed boat and in it a living baby wrapped in blankets - the last rescued passenger from the ship. The baby was adopted by one of the sailors who rescued people, and the baby survived and grew up.
Gustloff's beautiful tale ended with three torpedoes on the port side, which, according to various estimates, survived from 1,200 to 2,500 of the slightly less than 11,000 on board. According to the maximum estimates, the losses are estimated at 9,985 lives.
Anyone can easily find on the Web a description of the terrible scenes of the death of the liner and thousands of dead babies floating upside down. It is not easy to put on vests for adults on a little one so that he does not turn over in the water, although in any case, children would die from hypothermia in 5-7 minutes, otherwise they immediately choked. The most interesting thing is that none of the survivors blames Marinesco. They say surprisingly calmly that the ship with anti-aircraft guns and a thousand soldiers on board was completely legitimate military prey. Moreover, those who survived say that Hitler is to blame for everything ... And Marinsko has nothing to do with it, he just fired torpedoes, like in the dash. The idiot captain did not turn off the lights on the ship and the darkness of the winter night the liner shone like a Christmas tree! It was difficult to miss. It is clear that any accusations against Marinesco are meaningless.
There was a war! And at such a time, the death of civilians is completely natural! This is just another reminder of the inhumanity of wars. Hitler received a "gift" for the anniversary of his coming to power on January 30, 1933. He received the "gift" on January 30, 1945, it was 10 thousand corpses in the icy water of the Baltic Sea. The beginning of Hitler's activities received a worthy end at its decline! It is even possible that Marinesco had an order to carry out an attack, taking into account the meaning of the date for Hitler! The USSR was very fond of "dates"!
The Soviet system, which for many years did not recognize his merits for Marinesco, which only added fuel to the fire of doubts about the justification of the sinking of Gustloff, although, of course, the scale of the tragedy is staggering. Almost 50 years after the attack of the century Marinesko, he was finally given proper honors. At the Theological Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Marinesko's grave is very visited !!!
The splash screen features two flagships of the German cruise fleet: Robert Leigh and Wilhelm Gustloff. I could not wedge the monument to Marinesco. I hope history will forgive me for this.
"Wilhelm Gustloff"
In the second half of the 1930s. the German organization "Kraft Gyurch Freude" ("Strength through joy"), designed to provide full rest for workers and employees, decided to sea cruises... For this purpose, ships from various German companies were first chartered, and in 1935 Kraft Gürtsch Freude ordered two first-class cruise ships - Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Ley. The first of these was laid in May 1937 at the Blom und Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The new ship was named after the Nazi party leader, founder and head of the Swiss branch of the NSDAP. He was killed by a Jewish student David Frankfurter in 1936, after which he was declared a "martyr" in the Third Reich.
"Wilhelm Gustloff"
The basic data of the two formally similar vessels differed somewhat. The gross tonnage of "Wilhelm" was 25,484 grt, length - 208.5 m, width - 23.5 m, draft - 7 m, the power plant consisted of four eight-cylinder diesel engines "Sulzer" with a total capacity of 9500 hp, speed - 15.5 knots, crew - 417 people. During a cruise, the ship could take on board 1,463 passengers.
In terms of tourist accommodation, the liners were very democratic: they had one single class, and the level of comfort was considered quite high. Both ships were equipped with, for example, indoor swimming pools. "Wilhelm" and "Leigh" can be considered the prototypes of modern cruise ships: they had a shallow draft, which allowed them to enter most European ports. An economical power plant made it possible to do without bunkering for a long time. True, the new liners could not boast of high speed, which, however, was not a significant drawback. In addition, the diesels had a fairly high vibration level.
In March 1938, the Wilhelm Gustloff set out on her maiden voyage. The ship moved to the Mediterranean Sea and began to make week-long cruises around Italy, where vacationers from the Reich were transported by train. Already on the very first voyage, "Wilhelm", its captain and crew had a well-deserved glory - in the most difficult stormy conditions, an operation was carried out to rescue the crew of the dying British steamer "Pegaway".
On August 26, 1939, the Wilhelm was recalled from the cruise to Hamburg. As an ambulance transport, he was recruited to participate in the Norwegian campaign. Until the end of November 1940, the ship made four voyages to Norway and one to the Baltic, carrying more than 7,000 wounded. When the need for active use of "Wilhelm" disappeared, the ship was transferred to Gotenhaven (Gdynia) and turned into a hostel for cadets of the 2nd training division of diving. Several classrooms were also equipped on board the liner, and practical classes, for example, on diving, were held in the ship's swimming pool. After training, school graduates were sent to the newly formed submarine crews. During his stationary service, "Wilhelm" twice - October 9, 1943 and December 18, 1944 - fell under the bombing of the Allied aviation, but was able to avoid damage.
In January 1945, after the successes Soviet army in Poland and East Prussia, the Hannibal plan came into effect. It provided for the transfer of training units of the German submarine stationed in the Eastern Baltic regions to the ports of the Kiel Bay.
On January 21, the captain of the "Wilhelm Gustloff" Friedrich Petersen received an order to prepare to go to sea. Four days later, after checking all the systems of the ship that had stood idle for a long time, the liner was ready to sail. On board were 173 crew members, 918 officers and sailors of the submarine school under the command of corvette captain Wilhelm Zahn and 373 female Kriegsmarine auxiliary servicemen. By January 30 - the day of sailing - "Wilhelm" had received more than 4,000 refugees from East Prussia, as a result of which, at the time of going to sea, the ship had accommodated about 6,600 people, of which approximately 2,000 women and 3,000 children.
In the evening of the same day, at 23:08, "Wilhelm Gustloff" was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of Captain Third Rank A.I. Marinesco. Three torpedoes hit the port side of the vessel: one - in the bow, the second - in the area of the captain's bridge, and the third - in the midship area. Despite the fact that all the watertight doors of the ship were immediately closed, it immediately became clear that it would soon sink. The third torpedo knocked out the power plant of the liner, which entailed a complete blackout. The distress signal was sent from aboard the torpedo-catcher Löwe, accompanying the Wilhelm in this cruise. "Wilhelm Gustloff" began to plunge with its bow, with an increasing list to the port side. In the very first seconds after the explosions, refugees from the lower decks began to rush up to the lifeboats and rafts. As a result of the stampede that arose on the stairs and in the aisles of the overloaded ship, as it turned out later, about a thousand people died. Many, desperate to get to life-saving equipment, committed suicide or asked to shoot them.
Many members of the liner crew assigned to the boats were killed in the explosions, and the submariners took over the leadership of the rescue operation. They allowed only women and children to board the launching boats. Naturally, there was no question of any rowing in the watercraft equipped in this way, the boats began to be carried along the cold winter sea... Only a few lucky ones were removed from the decks of "Wilhelm" and picked up from the boats "Loewe" and the large destroyer T-36 approached the crash site.
At about midnight, when the liner reached 22 °, Captain Petersen gave the order to abandon the ship and escape. A huge number of refugees crowded on the glassed-in promenade deck, awaiting loading into the boats. When water appeared in the bow of the deck, in the aisles on boat deck the crush began again. Attempts to knock out thick triplexes of glazing did not lead to anything. Only one of the armored glass, which was already below the water level, finally burst, and through the gap formed several people were thrown to the surface of the sea. Before the complete submersion of the liner, about 2,500 more people were killed on board. The Wilhelm Gustloff sank with a roll of about 90 ° shortly after midnight. The liner agony lasted only about an hour. At an air temperature of minus 18 °, the people in the boats had little chance of survival. Many died from hypothermia. According to rough estimates, about 1,800 people died after boarding the life-saving appliances. The exact number of victims of the disaster is not fully understood - according to researchers, depending on the assessment of the information at their disposal, it ranges from 5340 to 9343 people, including about 3000 children. "Wilhelm Gustloff" still lies at the place of his death not far from Gdynia.
In the USSR, and in modern Russia, propaganda declared the S-13 attack "the attack of the century." A number of legends were associated with the sinking of "Wilhelm": supposedly on board there were formed and trained crews for new German submarines (although there were only cadets of "training") and Nazi bonzes, in Germany after the sinking of the ship a three-day mourning was declared, and Hitler called A.I. Marinesco is his "personal enemy". But throughout the war, three days of mourning was declared only for the Wehrmacht's 6th Army destroyed in Stalingrad, and Soviet publications confuse the mourning declared in 1936 after the death of the Swiss Nazi V. Gustloff with the one allegedly announced after the sinking of the ship. Hitler did not declare Marinesco his personal enemy either. The myth of the bosses is explained by the fact that the evacuation documents of the majority of passengers were certified by the local party leadership (a similar practice existed in the USSR when the population moved from the front-line areas to the rear). However, the other extreme is also untenable - charges of Marinesco with a war crime. By attacking the Wilhelm, the C-13 commander was doing his duty. The transport was not officially declared a hospital ship, and besides, it was escorted by a warship. Therefore, it is simply impossible to accuse Marinesco of excessive cruelty.
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The Wilhelm Gustloff was launched on May 5, 1937. The ship was 208.5 m long and 23.5 m wide. The motor ship could carry 1,463, with a crew of 417 people. It had 10 landing decks. In terms of its comfort, the liner was one of the best ships of that time. At the passengers' service there was a magnificent swimming pool, a beautiful winter garden, several music salons, and bars. The plane tickets were affordable for all social strata of the German population. The ship not only aroused the love of the German people for the Nazi regime, but was also a means of promoting the "advantages" of the National Socialist system throughout the world.
The authors of the project planned to give it the name "Adolf Hitler", but on February 4, 1936. in Davos, an unremarkable Swiss NSDAP activist Wilhelm Gustloff was killed. And he was killed by a Jewish student David Frankfurter. For propaganda purposes, the state leader of foreign Nazis was immediately turned into a victim of a conspiracy of world Jewry against the peaceful and hardworking German people, and a ship was named after him.
Sea trials and interior finishing were completed in May 1938. and on 24 May the ship embarked on its first cruise.
The ship was originally intended to propagate the Nazi regime. April 2, 1938 the crew of "Wilhelm Gustloff" will rescue British sailors in distress in the North Sea. The British reward the captain, and the name of the ship gets into all the world's media. The world is choking with delight over the achievements of Nazi Germany.
About 65 thousand people have visited cruise flights on "Wilhelm Gustloff". In addition, he transported volunteers of the Condor Legion to participate in the Spanish Civil War.
August 25, 1939 the ship embarked on another cruise, but in the North Sea the captain received a coded order to return to the port. A week later, World War II began.
With the outbreak of war, "Wilhelm Gustloff" was converted into a floating hospital. It was repainted white and marked with red crosses. According to the requirements of the Hague Convention, the attack on the ambulance ships was prohibited.
But already in the summer of 1940. the leadership of the German Navy assigned the ship to the submariners' school in Gotenhaven. The motor ship was repainted in a camouflage color and the red crosses were removed. It was used as a floating barracks for a diving school for about four years.
The ship received the first damage on October 9, 1943. during an aerial bombardment by American aircraft of Gotenhaven, in the port of which it was located.
At the beginning of 1945, when the fighting was taking place in Germany, panic broke out among the population. Crowds of refugees moved towards Gotenhafen (now the Polish port of Gdynia).
January 22, 1945 the loading of servicemen and refugees on board the Wilhelm Gustloff began. The first were several dozen submarine officers, then several hundred women serving in the naval auxiliary division, about a thousand wounded soldiers, and then they began to let refugees in, giving priority to women and children. By January 30, over 10 thousand refugees were accepted on board the ship. At about 12.30 the ship set off on its last journey.
Usually big ships advancing, accompanied by convoy ships, capable of providing protection against attacks, but evil doom by that time had already spread its black wings over the "Wilhelm Gustloff". One of the escort ships, TF-19 torpedoes, returned to port with damage to the hull as a result of a collision with a stone. A convoy of minesweepers, which supposedly went towards, did not reach the liner. And the doomed "Wilhelm Gustloff" went to the place of his death in guarding the only escort ship - the destroyer "Lion". Set off on a straight course, at a speed of 12 knots. To comply with the recommendations to go in a zigzag to complicate possible torpedo attacks, he did not have enough fuel. The ship made an excellent target. Moreover, hoping for a meeting with a convoy of minesweepers, the captain gave the order to turn on all the lights.
The brightly lit liner was spotted by the Soviet submarine C - 13, commanded by Captain Third Rank Alexander Marinesko. For two hours the boat followed the ship, choosing a position convenient for the attack. When the captain of the "Wilhelm Gustloff" Peterson, having lost hope of waiting for the convoy of minesweepers, at 19.30 gave the command to extinguish the lights, it was already too late.
At 21.04, from a distance of less than one kilometer, C - 13 launched the first torpedo, and then two more. The fourth torpedo got stuck in the torpedo tube, almost sinking the boat, but, fortunately, did not explode.
At 21.16 the first torpedo ripped the bow of the liner, the second hit the pool, and the third engine room.
Some of the passengers died from the explosions, some drowned in the cabins of the lower decks, and the survivors rushed to the lifeboats. Another part of the passengers died due to the resulting panic and crush. Most of them are women and children. By ordering to block the watertight compartments, Peterson also blocked the part of the crew that was supposed to lower the boats, and the passengers did not know how to do this. Nevertheless, they managed to launch several boats. By that time, the ship had given a strong heel. Because of the roll, an anti-aircraft gun fell off the deck and crashed onto one of the boats. Near the sinking liner in the icy water swam people mad with horror.
The destroyer "Lion" began to rescue. In total, the ship managed to save 472 passengers. Near the scene of the tragedy, the cruiser "Admiral Hipper", which had on board one and a half thousand passengers, passed. He passed without stopping, as he feared a torpedo attack. The only ship of his convoy, the destroyer T - 38, managed to get 179 people out of the water. The ships that arrived a little over an hour later for rescue were not found alive. Only corpses and debris floated in the icy water.
According to the maximum data, the losses were estimated at 9,343 people. Approximately 2,000 people survived.
The death of more than 9,000 people, mainly women and children, was the reason for conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on Captain Marinesco. However, posthumously.
On January 30, 1945, a Soviet submarine S-13 was torpedoed by a German passenger liner"Wilhelm Gustloff", which carried over 10,000 people. This disaster was the largest in history.
The liner was built in 1937 by the shipbuilding company Blohm + Voss. On Hitler's initiative, he was named "Wilhelm Gustloff", after a Nazi leader from Switzerland who was killed on February 5, 1936 by a Jew.
Start of construction (Hamburg)
The construction was carried out by the "Strength through Joy" organization. The liner was designed for 1500 people, had ten decks. Its engines were of medium power, as it was built for slow, comfortable cruises. In terms of amenities, equipment and recreational facilities, this ship was one of the best in the world.
Wilhelm Gustloff's widow Hedwig smashes a bottle of champagne on the side. Hitler stands behind her (May 5, 1937)
As the flagship of the cruise fleet, "Wilhelm Gustloff" spent only a year and a half at sea and carried out 50 cruises. It was visited by about 65,000 vacationers.
In 1938, the liner was used off the coast of Great Britain as a "floating polling station". Thus, German and Austrian citizens were given the opportunity to participate in a referendum on Austria's accession to the Reich.
At the elections (04/10/1938)
In addition to cruising, Wilhelm Gustloff was involved in various activities carried out by the German government. In May 1939, for the first time, he transported troops - German volunteers of the Condor Legion, which took part in the Spanish Civil War, from Spain to Hamburg.
With the outbreak of war, "Wilhelm Gustloff" was converted into a hospital ship (500 beds) and assigned to the German Navy. The liner was repainted white and marked with red crosses, which was supposed to protect it from attack according to the Hague Convention.
In 1940, the ship's service as a military hospital ended - by decision of the leadership of the Navy, it was assigned to the submariners' school in Gotenhafen. The liner was repainted gray again. Now it has turned into a floating barracks for a school of submariners, and served in this capacity throughout the war.
At the beginning of 1945, on the initiative of the German admiral Karl Dönitz, a special operation "Hannibal" was launched, the purpose of which was to evacuate civilians who had fled from the advancing Red Army to Germany. As part of this operation, on January 22, the Wilhelm Gustloff, which was at that time in the port of Gotenhafen (now Gdynia, Poland), began to take refugees on board. At first, people were accommodated with special passes - primarily submarine officers (918 people), women from the naval auxiliary division (373) and wounded soldiers (162). Then came civilians, giving preference to women and children. As of January 28, 6,600 people were registered. Further, in connection with the large accumulation of people on the coast, they began to let everyone in a row. Nobody counted these people anymore. According to more accurate estimates, 10,582 people were on board by the 30th.
On the evening of the 30th, when the liner was already calmly sailing in the Baltic Sea, for two hours it was pursued by the C-13 submarine under the command of Alexander Marinesko. At 21:04, Soviet submariners fired the first torpedo, which hit the bow of the ship. The second blew up the empty pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were located, and the last hit the engine room. The attack killed about 10,000 people.
Artist Klaus Rainer Forst
Artist Mike Intemann
Artist Seyar Bekirov
Artist Andrey Lubyanov
January 30, 1895 born in Schwerin William Gustloff, the future middle-level functionary of the National Socialist Party.
January 30, 1933 came to power Hitler; this day became one of the most significant holidays in the Third Reich.
January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler appointed Gustloff Landesgruppenleiter Switzerland based in Davos. Gustloff conducted active anti-Semitic propaganda, in particular, contributed to the dissemination of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in Switzerland.
January 30, 1936 medical student Frankfurter came to Davos with the intent to kill Gustloff... From a newspaper bought at the station kiosk, he learned that the governor was "at his Fuehrer in Berlin" and would return in four days. On February 4, a student killed Gustloff... Next year name "Wilhelm Gustloff" was assigned to a sea liner laid down as "Adolf Gitler".
January 30, 1945 years, exactly 50 years after birth Gustloff, Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of a rank 3 captain A. Marinesco torpedoed and sent the liner to the bottom "Wilhelm Gustloff".
January 30, 1946 Marinesco was demoted and transferred to the reserve.
He began his working life as a small bank clerk in the city of the seven lakes of Schwerin, the lack of education Gustloff compensated for with diligence.
In 1917, the bank transferred its young, diligent clerk, suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, to its branch in Davos. The Swiss mountain air completely healed the patient. Simultaneously with his work at the bank, he organized a local group of the National Socialist Party and became its leader. The doctor who treated Gustloff for several years spoke of his patient this way: "Limited, good-natured, fanatical, recklessly devoted to the Fuhrer:" If Hitler orders me to shoot my wife tonight at 6 o'clock, then at 5.55 am I the wife will be a corpse. ”Member of the Nazi Party since 1929. His wife Hedwig was Hitler's secretary in the early 1930s.
On February 4, 1936, Jewish student David Frankfurter entered a house marked W. Gustloff, NSDAP. He left for Davos a few days earlier - January 30, 1936 No luggage, with a one-way ticket and a revolver in his coat pocket.
Gustloff's wife took him into his office and asked him to wait; the puny, short visitor did not arouse any suspicion. Through the open side door, next to which hung a portrait of Hitler, the student saw a two-meter giant - the owner of the house, talking on the phone. When a minute later he entered the office, Frankfurter silently, without getting up from his chair, raised his hand with a revolver and fired five bullets. Walking quickly to the exit - to the heartbreaking screams of the murdered man's wife - he went to the police and announced that he had just shot Gustloff. Called to identify the killer, Hedwig Gustloff looks at him for a few moments and says: "How could you kill a man! You have such kind eyes!"
For Hitler, Gustloff's death was a gift from heaven: the first Nazi killed by a Jew abroad, in Switzerland, which he hated! The Jewish all-German pogrom did not take place only because the Winter Olympics were being held in Germany in those days, and Hitler still could not afford to completely ignore world public opinion.
The Nazi propaganda apparatus squeezed the best out of the event. A three-week mourning was declared in the country, state flags were lowered ... The farewell ceremony in Davos was broadcast by all German radio stations, the melodies of Beethoven and Haydn were replaced by Wagner's "Twilight of the Gods" ... Hitler spoke: "Behind the killer is the power of our Jewish enemy filled with hatred, trying to enslave the German people ... We accept their challenge to fight! " In articles, speeches, radio broadcasts, the words "Jew shot" sounded like a refrain.
Historians view Hitler's propaganda use of the assassination of Gustloff as a prologue to " final decision Jewish question ".
Gustlov is dead, long live Wilhelm Gustlov!
The insignificant personality of V. Gustloff, almost unknown before the assassination attempt, was officially elevated to the rank of Blutzeuge, a holy martyr who fell by the hand of a mercenary. The impression was that one of the main Nazi leaders was killed. His name was given to streets, squares, a bridge in Nuremberg, an air glider ... "Wilhelm Gustloff killed by a Jew".
In the name "Wilhelm Gustloff" was named the German "Titanic" the flagship of the fleet of an organization called Kraft durch freude, abbreviated KdF - "Strength through joy".
Led her Robert Lay, head of the state trade unions "German Workers Front". It was he who invented the Nazi salute, Heil Hitler! with an outstretched hand and ordered to carry it out first to all civil servants, then to teachers and schoolchildren, and even later to all workers. It was he, the famous drunkard and "the greatest idealist in the labor movement", who organized the fleet of ships KdF.
The Nazis, led by Adolf Hitler, having come to power in order to increase the social base of support for their policy among the population of Germany, one of the directions of their activity identified the creation of a wide system of social security and services.
Already in the mid-1930s, the ordinary German worker, in terms of the level of services and benefits that he was entitled to, favorably distinguished from workers in other European countries.
An entire fleet of passenger ships to provide cheap and affordable travel and cruises was conceived to be built as the embodiment of the ideas of National Socialism and their propaganda.
The flagship of this fleet was to be a new comfortable liner, which the authors of the project planned to name after the German Fuhrer - "Adolf Gitler".
The ships symbolized the National Socialist idea of a classless society and were themselves, in contrast to the luxury cruise ships sailing on all seas for the rich, "classless ships" with the same cabins for all passengers, making it possible, at the Fuehrer's will, for the locksmiths of Bavaria, postmen Cologne, to Bremen housewives at least once a year an affordable sea voyage to Madeira, along the Mediterranean coast, to the shores of Norway and Africa "(R. Leigh).
On May 5, 1937, at the Hamburg shipyard, Blum and Voss solemnly launched the world's largest ten-deck cruise ship, built by order of KdF. Gustloff's widow, in the presence of Hitler, smashed a bottle of champagne on the side, and the ship got its name - Wilhelm Gustloff. Its displacement is 25,000 tons, the length is 208 meters, and the cost is 25 million Reichsmarks. It is designed for 1,500 guests, at their service - glazed promenade decks, a winter garden, a swimming pool ...
Joy is a source of strength!
Thus began a short happy time in the life of the liner, it will last a year and 161 days. The "floating rest house" worked continuously, the people were delighted: the prices of sea travel were, if not low, then affordable. A five-day cruise to the Norwegian fjords cost 60 Reichsmarks, a twelve-day cruise along the coast of Italy - 150 rm (monthly earnings of a worker and employee were equal to 150-250 rm). While sailing, you could call home at a super-cheap rate and pour out your delight on your family. Abroad, vacationers compared living conditions with their own in Germany, and comparisons were often not in favor of foreign ones. A contemporary reflects: "How did Hitler manage to get hold of the people in a short time, to accustom them not only to silent obedience, but also to mass jubilation at official events? A partial answer to this question is given by the activities of the KdF organization."
Gustlov's finest hour fell in April 1938, when in stormy weather the crew rescued the sailors of the sinking British steamer Pegaway. The English press paid tribute to the skill and courage of the Germans.
The resourceful Leu used an unexpected propaganda success to use the ship as a floating polling station in the popular vote to annex Austria to Germany. On April 10, at the Thames estuary, Gustlow took on board about 1,000 German and 800 Austrian citizens living in the UK, as well as a large group of observer journalists, left the three-mile zone and anchored in neutral waters, where they voted. As expected, 99% of voters voted in favor. British newspapers, including the Marxist Daily Herald, were generous in praising the union ship.
The last cruise of the liner took place on August 25, 1939. Suddenly, during a planned voyage in the middle of the North Sea, the captain received an encrypted order to urgently return to port. Cruise time was over - less than a week later Germany invaded Poland and World War II began.The happy era in the life of the ship was cut short during the jubilee fiftieth voyage, on September 1, 1939, on the first day of the Second World War. By the end of September, it was converted into a floating infirmary with 500 beds. Major personnel changes were made, the ship was transferred to the naval forces, and next year, after another restructuring, it became the barracks of cadets-sailors of the 2nd training division of diving in the port of Gotenhafen (the Polish city of Gdynia). The elegant white sides of the motor ship, a wide green stripe along the sides and red crosses - everything is painted over with dirty gray enamel. The cabin of the head physician of the former infirmary occupied a submarine officer with the rank of corvette-captain, now he will determine the functions of the vessel. Portraits in the wardroom have been replaced: the smiling "great idealist" Lei gave way to the stern Grand Admiral Doenitz.
With the outbreak of war, almost all KdF ships were in military service. "Wilhelm Gustloff" was converted into a hospital ship and assigned to the German Navy - Kriegsmarine. The liner was repainted white and marked with red crosses, which was supposed to protect it from attack according to the Hague Convention. The first patients began arriving on board during the war against Poland in October 1939. Even in such conditions, the German authorities used the ship as a means of propaganda - as evidence of the humanity of the Nazi leadership, most of the first patients were wounded Polish prisoners. Over time, when the German losses became significant, the ship was sent to the port of Gotengafen (Gdynia), where it took on board even more wounded, as well as the Germans (Volksdeutsche) evacuated from East Prussia.The educational process proceeded at an accelerated pace, every three months - another release, replenishment for submarines - new buildings. But gone are the days when German submariners almost brought Britain to its knees. In 1944, 90% of the graduates of the courses were expected to die in steel coffins.
Already the autumn of 1943 showed that a quiet life was ending - on October 8 (9), the Americans covered the harbor with a bomb carpet. Floating infirmary Stuttgart caught fire and sank; this was the first loss of a former KdF ship. The explosion of a heavy bomb near Gustlov caused a 1.5-meter crack in the side skin that was brewed. The weld will still remind of itself on the last day of Gustlov's life, when the S-13 submarine will slowly but surely catch up with the initially faster floating barracks.
In the second half of 1944, the front approached very close to East Prussia. The Germans of East Prussia had certain reasons to fear revenge on the part of the Red Army - the great destruction and killings among the civilian population in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union were known to many. Germanpropaganda depicted the "horrors of the Soviet offensive."In October 1944, the first units of the Red Army were already on the territory of East Prussia. Nazi propaganda launched an extensive campaign to "denounce Soviet atrocities", accusing Soviet soldiers of mass murder and rape. By spreading such propaganda, the Nazis achieved their goal - the number of volunteers in the Volkssturm (German Volkssturm) militia increased, but the propaganda also led to increased panic among the civilian population as the front approached, and millions of people became refugees.
"They ask the question why the refugees were panicky afraid of revenge of the soldiers of the Red Army. Anyone who, like me, saw the destruction left by Hitler's troops in Russia, will not puzzled over this question for a long time," wrote R. Augstein, a long-term publisher of Der Spiegel.
On January 21, Grand Admiral Doenitz gave the command to begin Operation Hannibal, the largest sea evacuation of all time: more than two million people flew all the ships at the disposal of the German command to the West.
At the same time, the submarines of the Soviet Baltic Fleet were preparing for the final attacks of the war. A significant part of them was blocked for a long time in the Leningrad and Kronstadt ports by German minefields and steel anti-submarine nets, exhibited by 140 ships in the spring of 1943. After breaking the blockade of Leningrad, the Red Army continued its offensive along the coast Gulf of Finland and the surrender of Finland, Germany's ally opened the way for Soviet submarines to the Baltic Sea... Stalin's order followed: submariners based in Finnish harbors to detect and destroy enemy ships. The operation pursued both military and psychological goals - to hinder the supply of German troops by sea and to prevent the evacuation to the West. One of the consequences of the Stalinist order was Gustlov's meeting with the S-13 submarine and its commander, Captain 3rd Rank A. Marinesko.
Nationality - Odessa.
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| Captain of the third rank A.I. Marinesko |
Marinesco, the son of a Ukrainian mother and Romanian father, was born in 1913 in Odessa. During the Balkan War, his father served in the Romanian navy, was sentenced to death for participating in the mutiny, fled from Constanta and settled in Odessa, remaking the Romanian surname Marinescu in the Ukrainian way. Alexander's childhood passed among the breakwaters, dry docks and cranes of the port, in the company of Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians, Jews, Greeks, Turks; they all considered themselves primarily Odessa citizens. He grew up in the hungry post-revolutionary years, tried to grab a piece of bread wherever he could, and caught gobies in the harbor.
When life in Odessa returned to normal, foreign ships began to come to the port. Smart and cheerful passengers threw coins into the water, and Odessa boys dived after them; few people managed to get ahead of the future submariner. He left school at the age of 15, being able to read, write somehow and “sell sleeves from a vest,” as he often used to say later. His language was a colorful and whimsical mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, flavored with Odessa "khokhmas" and Romanian curses. A harsh childhood tempered and made him inventive, taught him not to get lost in the most unexpected and dangerous situations.
He began his marine life at the age of 15 as a cabin boy on a coastal steamer, graduated from a nautical school, and was drafted into military service. Probably, Marinesco was a born submariner, even his surname was sea. Starting the service, he quickly realized that he, an individualist by nature, was best suited for a small ship. After nine-month courses, he sailed as a navigator on the submarine Shch-306, then graduated from the command courses and in 1937 became the commander of another boat, M-96 - two torpedo tubes, 18 crew members. In the pre-war years, the M-96 bore the title "the best pilot of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet" putting Urgent dive time record - 19.5 seconds instead of 28 normative ones, for which the commander and his team were awarded a personalized gold watch.
By the beginning of the war, Marinesco was already an experienced and respected submariner. He possessed a rare gift to manage people, which allowed him to pass without loss of authority from the "comrade commander" to an equal member of the feast in the wardroom.
In 1944, Marinesko received under his command a large submarine of the Stalinets S-13 series. The history of the creation of boats of this series deserves at least a few lines, as it is a vivid example of secret military and industrial cooperation between the USSR and the Third Reich before the war. The project was developed by order of the Soviet government in an engineering bureau owned jointly by the German navy, Krupp and the shipyard in Bremen. The bureau was headed by the German Blum, a retired captain, and it was in The Hague - in order to circumvent the provisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty, which prohibits Germany from developing and building submarines.
At the end of December 1944, the C-13 was in the Finnish port of Turku and was preparing to go to sea. He was scheduled for January 2, but Marinesco, who went on a spree, did not appear on the boat until the next day, when the "special department" of the security service was already looking for him as a defector to the side of the enemy. Having evaporated the hops in the bath, he arrived at the headquarters and honestly told about everything. He could not remember the names of the girls and the place of the "spree" or did not want to, he only said that they were drinking pontikka, Finnish potato moonshine, in comparison with which "vodka is like mother's milk."
The commander of the S-13 would have been arrested were it not for the acute shortage of experienced submariners and Stalin's order, which had to be carried out at any cost. Divisional Commander Captain 1st Rank Orel ordered the C-13 to urgently go to sea and await further orders. On January 11, a fully fueled C-13 headed along the coast of the island of Gotland into the open sea. Returning to base without a victory was for Marinesco tantamount to giving up to a tribunal.
As part of Operation Hannibal, on January 22, 1945, Wilhelm Gustloff began to take refugees on board in the port of Gdynia (then called by the Germans Gotenhafen). hundreds of women from the naval auxiliary division and almost a thousand wounded soldiers.Later, when tens of thousands of people gathered in the port and the situation became more complicated, they began to let everyone in, giving priority to women and children.As the projected number of seats was only 1,500, refugees began to be placed on the decks, In the last stages of the evacuation, the panic intensified so much that some women in the port in despair began to give their children to those who managed to get on board, in the hope of rescuing them at least in this way. On January 30, 1945, the ship's crew officers had already stopped counting refugees, the number of which exceeded 10,000.
According to modern estimates, 10,582 people should have been on board: 918 cadets of the junior groups of the 2nd training submarine division (2.U-Boot-Lehrdivision), 173 crew members, 373 women from the auxiliary naval corps, 162 seriously wounded soldiers, and 8956 refugees, mostly old people, women and children.
Attack of the century.
Captain Gustlov Peterson is 63 years old, he has not piloted ships for many years and therefore asked to give him two young sailing captains to help him. The military command of the ship was entrusted to the experienced submariner corvette-captain Tsan. A unique situation was created: on the command bridge of the ship there are four captains with an unclear distribution of powers, which will be one of the reasons for the death of Gustloff.
On January 30, accompanied by the only ship, the torpedo bomber Lev, Gustloff left the port of Gotenhafen, and immediately a dispute broke out among the captains. Tsang, who knew about the danger of attacks by Soviet submarines more than others, suggested going in a zigzag with a maximum speed of 16 knots, in which case the slower boats would not be able to catch up with them. "12 knots, no more!" - objected Peterson, recalling the unreliable weld in the side skin, and insisted on his own.
Gustloff walked along the corridor through the minefields. At 19 o'clock a radio message was received: a detachment of minesweepers was on the head-on course. The captains gave the command to turn on the identification lights in order to avoid a collision. The last and decisive mistake. The ill-fated radiogram remained a mystery forever, no minesweepers appeared.
Meanwhile, the C-13, unsuccessfully plowing through the waters of the prescribed patrol route, on January 30 went to the Danzig Bay - there, as Marinesko's intuition suggested, there must be an enemy. The air temperature is minus 18, snow is sweeping.
At about 19 o'clock the boat surfaced, just at this time the lights were lit on Gustloff. In the first seconds the officer of the watch could not believe his eyes: the silhouette of a giant ship was shining in the distance! He appeared on the bridge of Marinesko, in a non-regulation oiled sheepskin sheepskin coat known to all Baltic submariners.
At 19:30, the captains of Gustloff, without waiting for the mystical minesweepers, ordered the lights to be turned off. Too late - Marinesco has already grasped the cherished goal with a stranglehold. He could not understand why the giant ship does not zigzag and is accompanied by only one ship. Both of these circumstances will make it easier to carry out the attack.
A joyful mood reigned on Gustloff: a few more hours, and they would leave the danger zone. The captains gathered in the wardroom for dinner, a steward in a white jacket brought pea soup and cold meat. We rested for some time after the arguments and worries of the day, drank a glass of brandy for success.
On the C-13, four bow torpedo tubes are prepared for attack, on each torpedo there is an inscription: on the first - "For the Motherland", On the second - "For Stalin", on third - "For the Soviet people" and on the fourth - "For Leningrad".
The goal is 700 meters. At 21:04 the first torpedo is fired, followed by the rest. Three of them hit the target, the fourth, with the inscription "For Stalin", gets stuck in a torpedo tube ready to explode at the slightest shock. But here, as often with Marinesco, the skill is supplemented by luck: the torpedo engine stalls for some unknown reason, and the torpedo operator quickly closes the outer cover of the apparatus. The boat goes under water.
At 21:16 the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up an empty pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were located, and the latter hit the engine room. The passengers' first thought was that they ran into a mine, but Captain Peterson realized that it was a submarine, and his first words were:
Das war’s - That's all.Those passengers who did not die from the three explosions and did not drown in the cabins on the lower decks rushed to the lifeboats in panic. At that moment, it turned out that by ordering to close, according to the instructions, the watertight compartments in the lower decks, the captain inadvertently blocked part of the crew, which was supposed to start lowering boats and evacuating passengers. Therefore, in the panic and crush, not only many children and women died, but also many of those who made it to the upper deck. They could not lower the lifeboats, because they did not know how to do this, besides, many davits were iced up, and the ship had already received a strong list. By the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some of the boats were launched, and yet there were many people in the icy water. An anti-aircraft gun came off the deck from the strong heel of the ship and crushed one of the boats, already full of people.
About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff sank completely.
One torpedo destroyed the side of the ship in the area of the swimming pool, the pride of the former KdF ship; it housed 373 girls from the auxiliary services of the fleet. Water gushed out, shards of colorful tile mosaics crashing into the bodies of the drowning. Those who survived - there are not many of them - said that at the time of the explosion, the German anthem sounded on the radio, ending Hitler's speech in honor of the twelfth anniversary of his coming to power.
Dozens of lifeboats and rafts floated around the sinking ship. Overloaded rafts are clung to people convulsively clinging to them; one by one, they drown in the icy water. Hundreds of dead children's bodies: life jackets keep them afloat, but children's heads are heavier than legs, and only legs stick out of the water.
Captain Peterson was one of the first to leave the ship. A sailor who was with him in the same rescue boat later said: "Not far from us a woman was floundering in the water screaming for help. We dragged her into the boat, in spite of the captain's cry," Set aside, we are already overloaded! "
More than a thousand people were rescued by an escort ship and seven ships that arrived in time to the crash site. 70 minutes after the explosion of the first torpedo, Gustloff began to sink. At the same time, something incredible happens: during the dive, the lighting that was out of order during the explosion suddenly turns on, and the howl of sirens is heard. People look with horror at the devil's performance.
The S-13 was lucky once again: the only escort ship was busy rescuing people, and when it began to throw depth charges, the torpedo "For Stalin" was already defused, and the boat was able to leave.
One of the survivors, 18-year-old housekeeping trainee Heinz Schön, collected materials related to the history of the liner for more than half a century, and became the chronicler of the greatest shipwreck of all time. According to his calculations, on January 30, 10,582 people were on board Gustlov, 9343 died. For comparison, the Titanic disaster, which hit an underwater iceberg in 1912, cost the lives of 1,517 passengers and crew members.
All four captains escaped. The youngest of them, by the name of Kohler, committed suicide shortly after the end of the war - he was broken by the fate of Gustloff.
The destroyer "Lion" ( former ship Dutch Navy) first arrived at the scene of the tragedy and began to rescue the surviving passengers. Since in January the temperature was already −18 ° C, there were only a few minutes before irreversible hypothermia of the body occurred. Despite this, the ship managed to rescue 472 passengers from boats and from the water.
The escort ships of another convoy also came to the rescue - the cruiser "Admiral Hipper", which, in addition to the crew, also had about 1,500 refugees on board.
For fear of an attack by submarines, he did not stop and continued to retire to safe waters. Other ships (under "other ships" is understood as the only destroyer T-38 - the GAS did not work on the "Loew", the "Hipper" left) managed to save another 179 people. A little more than an hour later, the new ships that came to the rescue were able to fish only dead bodies from the icy water. Later, a small messenger ship, which arrived at the scene of the tragedy, unexpectedly found, seven hours after the sinking of the liner, among hundreds of dead bodies an unnoticed boat and in it a living baby wrapped in blankets - the last rescued passenger of "Wilhelm Gustloff".As a result, it was possible to survive, according to various estimates, from 1200 to 2500 people out of a little less than 11 thousand who were on board. According to the maximum estimates, the losses are estimated at 9,985 lives.
Gustlov's chronicler Heinz Schön in 1991 tracked down the last survivor of 47 people from the C-13 team, 77-year-old former torpedo operator V. Kurochkin, and twice visited him in a village near Leningrad. The two old sailors told each other (with the help of an interpreter) what happened on the memorable day of January 30 on the submarine and on Gustloff.
During the second visit, Kurochkin confessed to the German guest that after their first meeting, almost every night he dreamed of women and children drowning in icy water screaming for help. At parting, he said: "This is a bad thing - war. Shoot at each other, kill women and children - what could be worse! People should learn to live without shedding blood ..."
In Germany, the reaction to the sinking of "Wilhelm Gustloff" at the time of the tragedy was rather restrained. The Germans did not disclose the scale of the losses, so as not to worsen the morale of the population even more. In addition, at that moment the Germans suffered heavy losses in other places. However, after the end of the war, in the minds of many Germans, the simultaneous death of so many civilians and especially thousands of children on board the Wilhelm Gustloff remained a wound that even time did not heal. Together with the bombing of Dresden this tragedy remains one of the most terrible events of the Second World War for the German people.
Some German publicists consider the sinking of Gustlov to be a crime against civilians, the same as the bombing of Dresden. However, here is the conclusion made by the Institute of Maritime Law in Kiel: “Wilhelm Gustloff was a legitimate military target, there were hundreds of submariners, anti-aircraft guns ... There were wounded, but the status of a floating hospital was absent. and ordered to destroy everything that floats. The Soviet armed forces had the right to respond in kind. "
Disaster researcher Heinz Schön concludes that the liner was a military target and its sinking was not a war crime, because:
ships intended for the transport of refugees, hospital ships had to be marked with the appropriate signs - a red cross, could not wear camouflage colors, could not go in the same convoy with military ships. On their board could not be any military cargo, stationary and temporarily placed air defense weapons, artillery pieces or other similar means."Wilhelm Gustloff" was a warship, being assigned to the naval forces and armed, which was allowed to climb six thousand refugees. All responsibility for their lives, from the moment they boarded the battleship, lay with the relevant officials of the German navy. Thus, "Gustloff" was a legitimate military target of Soviet submariners, in view of the following facts:
"Wilhelm Gustloff" was not an unarmed civilian ship: it had weapons on board that could fight enemy ships and aircraft;
"Wilhelm Gustloff" was a training floating base for the German submarine fleet;
"Wilhelm Gustloff" was escorted by a German naval battleship (destroyer "Lev");
Soviet transports with refugees and wounded during the war years repeatedly became targets for German submarines and aviation (in particular, motor ship "Armenia", sunk in 1941 in the Black Sea, carried more than 5 thousand refugees and wounded on board. Only 8 people survived. However, "Armenia", as well as "Wilhelm Gustloff", violated the status of a medical vessel and was a legitimate military target).
... Years have passed. Most recently, a correspondent for the magazine Der Spiegel met in St. Petersburg with Nikolai Titorenko, a former peacetime submarine commander and author of the book "Hitler's Personal Enemy" about Marinesko. Here is what he told the reporter: “I do not feel a sense of vengeful satisfaction. Germany has left the path of peace agreement with Russia indicated by Bismarck. "
Unlike the lengthy search for the Titanic, finding Wilhelm Gustloff was easy.
Its coordinates at the time of sinking turned out to be accurate, moreover, the ship was at a relatively shallow depth - only 45 meters.
Mike Boring visited the wreck in 2003 and filmed documentary about his expedition.
On Polish navigational charts the place is marked as "Obstacle No. 73"
In 2006, the bell, lifted from the shipwreck and then used as a decoration in a Polish fish restaurant, was exhibited at the Forced Paths exhibition in Berlin.
On March 2-3, 2008, a new TV film of the German channel ZDF entitled "Die Gustloff" was shown
In 1990, 45 years after the end of the war, Marinesko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Later recognition came thanks to the activities of the "Marinesco Committee" operating in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa and Kaliningrad. Monuments were erected to the C-13 commander in Leningrad and Kaliningrad. A small museum of Russian submarine forces in the northern capital is named after Marinesko.
