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Wilhelm Gustloff: Deadliest Shipwreck

STORY PREFACE

http://awesomestories.com/images/user/4b9282fda6.jpg
 
Photograph taken by Hans Sönnke in 1939.  Image maintained by the German Federal Archives.  Online, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.


The surging mass of people
attempted to storm the lifeboats,
hardly anyone hearing the command:
"women and children first."

Karl Hoffmann
Wilhelm Gustloff Survivor

The night was freezing cold as an estimated 10,582 people (perhaps more) were crammed into the Wilhelm Gustloff. 

Most folks on the overcrowded ship, designed to carry 1,865 passengers, were German women and children. They thought they were escaping certain death at the hands of the approaching Soviet Army.

 

 

Key to Color-Coded Links

Original Release Date:  January, 2002
Updated Quarterly, or as Needed

To cite this story, using MLA Guidelines:

Bos, Carole D. "Wilhelm Gustloff: Deadliest Shipwreck" AwesomeStories.com. Date of access
       <http://www.awesomestories.com/disasters/gustloff>.

IN OTHER WORDS: Author. Title of story. Name of web site. Date of access <URL>.