Wilhelm Gustloff - Deadliest Shipwreck

Despite the sorrows, some people had reasons to celebrate.  Miraculously, family members, thought lost, had survived.  But that was the rare exception, as rescuers relate what they saw when they arrived on the scene.

One young child was cared-for - then adopted by - a rescuer.  After the war, parents and children try to find their lost loved ones - mostly, but not all, to no avail.

Ships brought the survivors - 1,239 of them - to western ports.  More than 10,000 people died, half of them children and babies.

Credits

Video clip from Last Voyage of the Gustloff, a documentary combining historic footage with recreated scenes from a three-hour, made-for-German-television film (in 2008) directed by Joseph Vilsmaier entitled Ship of No Return: The Last Voyage of the Gustloff (or, in German, Die Gustloff).