„What the commercial ships turned refugee transporters have been accomplished
in these dramatic 125 days cannot be duly appreciated..."
Hans Georg Prager
In early 1945, the 1st Baltic Front of the Red Army advanced westwards through East Prussia towards Königsberg and the port of Pillau.
The 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts, advancing from the south, initially moved westwards before turning north towards the Baltic Sea.
These operations encircled East Prussia and cut the population off from escape by land to the west. The Baltic ports became the principal remaining route of evacuation.
The remaining German forces were pushed back towards the coast and defended the encircled ports at heavy cost, allowing large numbers of civilians to be evacuated by sea. In this way, approximately 2.5 million people escaped westwards.
Many thousands who believed they had reached safety aboard ship nevertheless died in the ice-cold Baltic. The vessels were attacked with bombs, rockets, cannon fire and torpedoes, and hospital ships carrying seriously wounded patients were also sunk. In total, more than 250 ships were lost.
40,000 dead
The sinking of the Titanic is widely remembered, yet the Baltic evacuation disasters — some with far higher death tolls — remain much less familiar to the general public.
The figures given here list 9,343 dead on the Wilhelm Gustloff, about 7,000 on the Goya, 5,594 on the Cap Arcona, 3,608 on the Steuben, 2,950 on the Thielbek, 1,500 on the Orion, 970 on the Karlsruhe, 956 on the Neuwerk and 8,078 victims aboard a further 242 refugee vessels.
Victims were killed by torpedoes and bombs, drowned in the freezing Baltic, were crushed in overcrowded passages aboard sinking ships, burned or suffocated below deck, or were fired upon in the water by low-flying aircraft.
The majority were women and children from East Prussia, West Prussia and Pomerania fleeing the advancing Red Army.
Many wounded soldiers and civilians were also among those hoping to reach safety by sea.
