The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

One day in Real History. . .

On January 30, 1945 a Russian submarine operating in the Baltic sank the liner Wilhelm Gustloff (named for the National Socialist party's official representative in Switzerland, assassinated by a Jewish terrorist before WW2).

Listen to CBC (Canada) 11-minute interview: "Fifty six years ago today, the largest Maritime disaster ever took place. Between seven and ten thousand people lost their lives in the disaster when a Soviet sub torpedoed the Wilhelm Gustloff. Bill Jungken, who lives in Regina (Saskatchewan), was a 9 year old boy when he and his mother boarded the Wilhelm Gustloff." 7,000 dead -- That's five or six times as many as died in the Titanic. (Hollywood, where are you when you are needed?) Heinz Schön: Die Gustloff Katastrophe (ISBN 3-613-01027-5, Motorbuch Verlag, 5th edition, 1999) puts the death toll at 9,343! He was one of the survivors.

Relevant items on this website:

Günter Grass break taboo, writes of the sinking of the liner Wilhelm Gustloff with 8,000 dead in January 1945

and a website on the disaster