The Wilhelm Gustloff, a forgotten tragedy.

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diddles25's avatar
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It has been 71 years to date since the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise ship turned refugee ship, was torpedoed and sank in the evening by a Russian submarine just off the coast of present-day Poland.

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Designed to carry 1,850 people, the Wilhelm Gustloff was jammed with approximately 10,600 people when she left the port of modern-day Gdynia. Nearly 9,000 of those on board were refugees, including roughly 5,000 children and the remainder overwhelmingly women and old men. All of them fleeing the wrath of the Russian army. Many mothers had at least 3 children.

despite the refugees, the 
Wilhelm Gustloff was a legitimate military target because of the thousand or so submarine crew and military personnel that she carried.

Only about 1,230 people survived while over 9,300 others were trapped inside the ship or froze to death in the icy Baltic.


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Master-of-the-Boot's avatar
I admit that I had never heard of this incident. 

i remember as a kid, there was an infinite number of ways I could explain away or rationalize atrocities in war. I loved history and war movies as a kid, but nuance and understanding didn't come until much later. 

Now that I look back on it, the loss of life saddens me. They were homo sapiens sapiens. Just like you or me. 

A tragedy is a tragedy