When CAP ARCONA, DEUTSCHLAND and THIELBECK were attacted by RAF bombers, the former pride of HAMBURG SÜD and the Queen of the South Atlantic, and the other two vessels were filled with more than 4,500 concentration camp prisoners on CAP ARCONA and their guards.
The sanitatrian situation, the machines of CAP ARCONA and the other ships had been shut down, and humanitarian stress, denying food and medical help, on board CAP ARCONA was and became the more unbearable, as she and the other two liners seemd to be forgotten by the SS administration in the last days of Nazi tyranny.
written by , PhD Candidate, School of Art and Humanities, Nottingham Trent Universityediting by Earl of Cruise
CAP ARCONA, 1927, in her earlier days - own collection
On the
afternoon of May 3, 1945, a squadron of RAF Typhoons began their descent
to attack Axis shipping in Neustadt Bay, Germany. Below them, the
former luxurious liner CAP ARCONA, HAPAG liner DEUTSCHLAND and the freighter THIELBECK laden with nearly 10,000
concentration camp prisoners, 4,500 on board CAP ARCONA only, who had been “evacuated” to the coast - and
at around 3pm, the Typhoons from the Second Tactical Air Force,
launched their assault with their rockets.
The result was one of the world’s worst maritime disasters, leaving
both the concentration camp prisoners and the ship’s crew struggling for survival in the cold Baltic waters. An estimated 4,000 prisoners perished. More than 70 years
on from the tragic sinking, crucial questions remain regarding the role
of British forces in the final days of the Second World War.
The disaster has long been sensationalised (this link is to MAIL ONLINE, which is publishing in its article quite a lot of nonsense, including a ridiculous hint to TITANIC! Earl of Cruise) by the print media. Headlines such as “Friendly fires of hell” have been the norm - thanks, in part, to a surprising lack of scholarly attention.
In turn, this has led to a number of conspiracy theories about the
sinking. One such rumour claimed that important British records related
to the incident had been sealed until 2045.
In fact, all of the records were publicly released in 1972 after the
Public Records Act 1967 reduced the amount of time they were to be kept secret - and I () have spent a great deal of time researching them.
For a long time rumours circulated in Germany, that SS had deliberately sent the liners into the Bay of Neustadt, knowing of comming RAF attacs, and therefor to get rid of the concentration camp prisoners as victims in comming war crime trials. But also that the British Secret Service knew of the occupants in the laid up vessels in the Bay of Neustadt. Earl of Cruise
In the immediate aftermath of the war, Britain’s focus was on
attempting to prosecute Nazi war criminals, and investigations into
British misadventures were sidelined. And shortly after that, attentions
shifted east, as the Cold War gathered pace.
Nevertheless, it is now possible to reconstruct what really happened -
including Britain’s role in the tragedy - with a closer examination of
archival files.
Burned out and capsized hull of CAP ARCONA in the Bay of Neustadt - own collection
Endgame, the end solution ...
"No concentration camp prisoner must fall alive into enemy hands." was Himmler’s last order concerning the fate of Germany’s
remaining camp prisoners. But as the Nazi camp system continued to
contract in March 1945, it would be wrong to assume that it was the real
driving force behind the evacuation of Neuengamme camp.
Neuengamme, near Hamburg, was largely unique within the Nazi camp system. Local politicians, in particular Nazi Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann,
had developed close business links with local industrialists and
supplying slave labour from the camp to nearby businesses became a
profitable enterprise.
The SS earned millions of Reichsmark with the lease of concentration camp prisoners, used as slaves for the war industry and civilian industries still need. Earl of Cruise
But by early 1945, the Allied advance placed increasing pressure on
local Nazi politicians - and complicit businesses - to eradicate any evidence
of slave labour from within Hamburg city limits. The “problem” had to
be moved elsewhere.
In the absence of another option, Kaufmann made arrangements in March
1945 to requisition a passenger liner to act as a “temporary” holding
camp for Neuengamme’s prisoners. Any long-term planning was simply
nonexistent. Decisions were on situations changing by the hour, and lasting for a day or two, Earl of Cruise. Indeed, once the camp was emptied in mid-April, the local
politicians no longer concerned themselves with the fate of the
prisoners now held in squalor aboard the CAP ARCONA and the other vessels in the nearby Bay of Neustadt.
Nevertheless, the “prisoner hierarchy” continued on board the ship.
The prisoners remained segregated according to nationality and religion.
In addition, SS troops stayed on board to supervise the prisoners. This
indicated that CAP ARCONA was intended used as a temporary extension of the
original Neuengamme Camp, albeit one that was largely out of sight and out of
mind.
Liberation or destruction
Following the Allied Yalta Conference of February 1945, British military policy was geared towards a swift advance to the Baltic coast.
There were two reasons for this. First, Britain wished to halt the
Soviet advance as it swept ever further west. To achieve this, Lübeck on
the Baltic coast was considered the strategic goal. Second, by halting the Soviets here, British forces would be able to
liberate Denmark and restore the Danish monarchy. With the monarchy
restored, Britain would gain a valuable ally in the months ahead.
But the speed of the Soviet advance meant that the normal protocols
and procedures that had been well established throughout the war fell to
the wayside as British troops raced for their objective. To make
matters worse, communication lines became strained, and intelligence was
not always processed in a thorough and timely manner.
On the afternoon of May 2nd and the morning of May 3rd, two pieces of
intelligence were handed to British commanders.
The first was handed to
the liberating forces of Lübeck, the 11th Armoured Division, by an
International Committee Red Cross delegate (ICRC).
The second was
presented to British forces by a Swedish Red Cross (SRC) delegate.
Both informed the British that camp prisoners were being held aboard ships in Neustadt Bay. But the warning arrived too late.
As the German Reich contracted, British forces remained heavily
engaged in an important battle to reach their objective on Germany’s
north coast. But while the German retreat was often marked by disorder,
Britain’s military campaign also became frantic and chaotic,
particularly in the final weeks. A breakdown of efficient communication
and intelligence sharing meant that frontline forces were often
ill-prepared for the actual situation ahead of them.
In this case, the latest intelligence on the ships in Neustadt Bay
never reached the pilots who attacked them. As they made their final
descent, the airmen likely believed they were attacking bona fide
hostile targets.
Ultimately, the fate of CAP ARCONA, DEUTSCHLAND and THIELBECK and its passengers was a tragic consequence of the fog of war.
When finally the war was at an end, and peace took place, each day out of the destroyed wrecks poored dead bodies and floated to the beaches in the Bay of Neustadt. This happend also, when CAP ARCONA was boken up on the spot, and years later when most the wreck was gone. Earl of Cruise
Top (Wiki) and below (Wiki), memorial in Neustadt/Holstein for the victims of CAP ARCONA, DEUTSCHLAND and THIELBECK
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