Wilhelm Gustloff - Survivors Tell Their Stories

Survivors of the Wilhelm Gustloff disaster recall what it was like after their ship is struck by three Soviet torpedoes.  Everything is frozen, making it even more difficult for people to get into lifeboats. 

The ship lists badly, in very short order.  An eyewitness sees a German officer shoot his two daughters and wife, after the woman pleads with her husband to end their suffering.  When the officer tries to shoot himself, he fails because he'd run out of bullets.  He drowns, instead.

Members of families, once together, are separated as the ship sinks within 62 minutes.  The Baltic is just above freezing as drowning people fight to stay alive.  A nearby German ship, also overloaded with people, sails away before rescuing survivors in the Gustloff's lifeboats. 

All five captains of the Gustloff survive, even though thousands of their passengers did not.

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).