Athens (ship, 1936)
 Forward of the Athens
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The Athen was a German cargo ship owned by the Deutsche Levante-Linie (DLL) shipping company . The ship was shot at by English fighter bombers on May 3, 1945 together with the Cap Arcona , the Thielbek and the Deutschland in the Bay of Lübeck . At that time there were numerous concentration camp prisoners on board.
history
Use until 1945
The ship was put into service in September 1936 and operated by the German Levante Line until 1940. In 1940 the Navy took over the ship and had it converted into a minesweeper Sperrbrecher 2 by September 1940 . On September 22, 1940, the Sperrbrecher 2 sank by mines near Boulogne. In November 1942 the ship was lifted and returned to DLL, which repaired it until 1944 and operated it again as Athens .
Loading with concentration camp prisoners
On Friday, April 20, as part of the evacuation were from Neuengamme concentration camp by the SS concentration camp prisoners from the Neuengamme camp aboard the Athens abducted, the laying on roads before Neustadt lying Cap Arcona should be brought. Since the captain of the Cap Arcona , Heinrich Bertram, did not take over the prisoners, the Athens ran back to Lübeck .
“Report from the captain of the Athens D. Nobmann dated May
9, 1945. I received the order from the transport leader to bring the prisoners alongside the steamer Cap Arcona, which was in the roadstead. Cap Arcona refused to accept the prisoners. Athens anchored near Cap Arcona. The next morning Arcona also refused to accept the prisoners. "
On Saturday, April 21, the number of prisoners below deck was around 4,300, around 450 soldiers were guarding the deck and in the crew quarters . Another attempt to bring prisoners from the Athens to the Cap Arcona was unsuccessful because the ship's command of the Cap Arcona refused. Even the SS-Hauptsturmführer Thümmel, negotiating with the ship's command, was powerless against it. Since the captain Bertram was on land for negotiations, the ship's command consisted of the civilian nautical officers. As the SS put more and more pressure on, the ship's officers asked Bertram to come aboard his ship.
On April 23rd, Dittmer received the order from the HSDG through the personal advisor of Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann , SS-Hauptsturmführer Horn, to accept prisoners on the Cap Arcona . Dittmer called Bertram and advised him to contact Rear Admiral Conrad Engelhardt. Engelhardt and his staff were in the port of Flensburg on the Malaga and, as those responsible for sea transport for the auxiliary ships of the Navy, were in command of the Cap Arcona . Since the Cap Arcona was no longer clear to sea due to a defective propulsion system and empty fuel tanks, she was no longer an auxiliary ship and was no longer subject to the Navy.
On Tuesday, April 24th, Bertram received a message by courier that the "protective prisoners" were to be taken over. Lewinski, a sea captain who was obliged to serve with the Reich Commissioner for Shipping ("Reiko See"), who came to Lübeck to check the situation, also inspected the Athens and complained, with little success, about the unbearable conditions in which people were accommodated in the holds . The Athens called Cap Arcona a third time to hand over the concentration camp prisoners, but Bertram refused this time as well. The prisoners who died due to the extremely poor diet and accommodation were simply thrown overboard by the SS in order to bypass the land bureaucracy when they were buried in mass graves.
On April 25th, the Athen ran again to Cap Arcona . Bertram again refused to accept the prisoners. However, the Athen remained lying next to the Cap Arcona , also to alleviate the plight of the prisoners who were dying of thirst. They received food and drinking water from the Cap Arcona . In the meantime, Lewinski discovered that a handover to the Cap Arcona could not take place because there were insufficient food supplies and drinking water for the many concentration camp inmates. The SS tried to reassure the ship's command and the civil and military departments with slogans of purpose (e.g. with the claim that the ships were supposed to leave for Sweden to rescue the concentration camp prisoners).
The last transport of concentration camp inmates by train probably left Neuengamme on April 26th. There were now around 9,000 prisoners in the Lübeck area. The firing command of SS-Sturmbannführer Christoph-Heinz Gehring exerted extremely strong pressure on Captain Bertram so that he would comply with the SS orders to embark the prisoners. Bertram avoided violence, but declined any responsibility, as the ship was not suitable for this high concentration of people. This enabled the Athen to hand over the first 2,500 prisoners to the Cap Arcona .
British attack
On Wednesday, May 2, the SS commandos in Neustadt largely disbanded and went into hiding as the British advanced towards the mouth of the Trave. The Thielbek and Athens left and anchored in the Bay of Lübeck. They encountered a ship convoy loaded with prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp , which consisted of the inland barges Vaterland and Wolfgang pulled by two tugs . They came from Danzig and briefly moored in the naval port of Neustadt. Since the prisoners had not been given anything to eat for days, they rummaged through the rubbish bins on the quay for food and were pushed back by the marines. The SS then tried to accommodate the prisoners on the prisoner ships in the Bay of Lübeck. Since this was unsuccessful, they cut the tow ropes in the bay, returned to Neustadt with the tugs and left the propulsionless ships and the prisoners to their own devices.
After the stranding of their ships between Neustadt in Holstein and Pelzerhaken on May 3rd, the stronger part of the almost starved prisoners of Wolfgang und Vaterland from the Stutthof concentration camp went ashore early on May 3rd and looked for something to eat. Since Neustadt remained blocked by armed forces, some went via Ruhleben to Merkendorf, others reached Oldenburg in Holstein . SS commandos rowed to the stranded ships and drove the prisoners ashore. 77 were shot on board. Other prisoners were pushed back to the landing site on the bank by the Volkssturm and marines under the command of Lieutenant Ziemann, and over 1000 were rounded up on the barracks sports field of the U-Schule.
On May 3, the Athen was unmarked in the roadstead with almost 2,000 prisoners on board. At around 12:00 noon, Captain Nobmann received the order to call at Neustadt again to take over the prisoners from the inland waterway vessels. At around 2 p.m. the Athen reached the Neustadt naval port, where many prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp were waiting. The commandant of the Stutthof concentration camp, Paul Werner Hoppe , informed the unwilling prisoners that they would be shipped on the Athens to Flensburg to be released there. During the loading process, there was a dispute between SS-Untersturmführer Kierstein, the site commander Heinrich Schmidt, and Captain Nobmann, who strongly opposed any further admission of prisoners.
The attack by the first wave of British Typhoon I B fighter-bombers (Jabos) began around 2:30 p.m. Nine fighter-bombers attacked the ships in Neustädter Bay. Athens , located in the naval port of Neustadt, was also attacked, which fought back with the quadruple flak on the bow. The Athens was hit; some prisoners were killed in this attack. The Athens was in contrast to the Cap Arcona , Thielbeck , Germany but not destroyed, and many other ships. British spearheads coming from Süsel and Wintershagen had reached the outskirts of Neustadt, intervened in the fight and fired at the anti-aircraft guns of the Athens . The second wave with a squadron of nine planes attacked Germany and the third wave with eight planes looked for targets in Neustädter Bucht. The marines on the Athens gun gave up and hoisted the "white flag". In the attacks by British planes on May 3, a total of 23 ships were sunk and 115 ships were damaged.
Liberation of the prisoners
The prisoners of the Athens were released, got onto the quays and fetched food from the magazines of the lucky clover. The food train with cheese, sugar sacks and butter packets standing at the station was also cleared. The surviving prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp also took part.
A smoldering fire developed in the hold of the largely undamaged Athens . Since there was still flak ammunition on board, she was towed from the naval port.
Use after the end of the war
However, it remained largely undamaged and was delivered to the Soviet Union in 1946, which renamed it General Brusilov . In 1947 the USSR ceded the freighter to Poland. The ship was renamed there in Waryński and initially operated by the Gdynia-Ameryka line . In 1951, Polskie Linie Oceaniczne took over the ship and operated it in South American service until 1970. In the second quarter of 1970 the Waryński was launched and used as a Hulk . In 1971 the demolition took place in Szczecin.
literature
- Gerhard Besier (Ed.): Jehovah's Witnesses in Europe - Past and Present. Volume 1 . LIT Verlag, Münster 2013, ISBN 3-643-11508-3 .
- Jan Erik Schulte, Working Group of Nazi Memorials in North Rhine-Westphalia (Ed.): Concentration Camps in the Rhineland and Westphalia 1933–1945 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2005, ISBN 3-506-71743-X .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Register Book 1970-71, Register of Ships MZ , Lloyd's Register of Shipping, London, p. 1668.
- ↑ A concentration camp is evacuated; Catalog for the traveling exhibition; ISBN 3-86108-764-2 , Volume 1 - page 253
- ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt in Holstein 2014, p. 67.
- ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt in Holstein 2014, p. 66.
- ↑ a b Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt in Holstein 2014, p. 68.
- ↑ a b Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt in Holstein 2014, p. 69.
- ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt in Holstein 2014, p. 70.
- ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt in Holstein 2014, p. 234.
- ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt in Holstein 2014, p. 84.
- ↑ James E. Wise, Scott Baron: Soldiers Lost at Sea: A Chronicle of Troopship Disasters. Naval Institute Press 2004, p. 195, ISBN 1-59114-966-5 .
- ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt in Holstein 2014, p. 85.
- ^ Gerhard Besier (ed.): Jehovah's Witnesses in Europe - Past and Present. Volume 1, p. 489
- ↑ Jan Erik Schulte: Concentration camps in the Rhineland and Westphalia 1933–1945 . Working group of Nazi memorials in NRW, p. 146, books.google.de
- ↑ Not rescue, but destruction . In: Die Zeit , No. 47/1998
- ↑ The Death Of Ships Lubeck Bay. thepeoplenews.com, accessed August 21, 2013 .
- ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt in Holstein 2014, p. 89.
- ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt in Holstein 2014, p. 94.
- ↑ Detlef Garbe: 'Cap Arcona' commemoration. In: Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial (Ed.): Help or Trade? Rescue efforts for victims of Nazi persecution. Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-874-5 , p. 169
- ^ The Polish Maritime Trade , In: Hamburger Abendblatt , March 31, 1956
- ↑ The Athens on Miramar Ship Index (English)