Wilhelm Gustloff - Panic Among the Refugees

Thousands of fleeing refugees, seeking to escape the advancing Soviet Army, crowd the roads as East Prussia is cut-off from the rest of Germany.  Trying to reach the port of Gotenhafen, people are hoping to reach safety on board ships like the Wilhelm Gustloff. 

Families are not just desperate to get away from Soviet planes and Red Army soldiers.  Escaping people, mostly women and children, are also enduring the coldest winter in decades.

Panic on the ground, while fleeing the Soviet Army, will soon give way to panic on the water, as the Wilhelm Gustloff is torpedoed by a Soviet submarine.

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).