Cap Arcona (ship, 1927)

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Cap Arcona
Cap Arcona 1.JPG
Ship data
flag German EmpireGerman Empire (trade flag) German Empire German Empire
German EmpireGerman Empire (trade flag) 
Ship type Passenger ship
Shipping company Hamburg South
Shipyard Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Build number 476
Launch May 14, 1927
Commissioning October 29, 1927
Whereabouts Sunk on May 3, 1945
Ship dimensions and crew
length
205.9 m ( Lüa )
196.2 m ( Lpp )
width 25.8 m
Draft Max. 8.7 m
measurement 27,561 GRT
 
crew 630 men
Machine system
machine 2 geared turbines
Machine
performance 		24,000 PS (17,652 kW)
Top
speed 		21 kn (39 km / h)
propeller 2
Transport capacities
Load capacity 11,500 dw
Permitted number of passengers 1,315
from 1937: 850

Coordinates: 54 ° 2 ′ 30.6 ″  N , 10 ° 51 ′ 51.2 ″  E

The Cap Arcona was a luxury steamer and the flagship of the Hamburg-South America line . It was named after Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen . The ship was sunk by British planes on May 3, 1945, shortly before the end of World War II , killing most of the approximately 4,600 concentration camp prisoners on board . 2,800 prisoners were killed on the accompanying ship Thielbek .

History of the ship until 1945

Deck plans of the Cap Arcona

The Cap Arcona was on 14 May 1927 by the stack and was considered one of the finest vessels of its time. She left the port of Hamburg on November 19, 1927 on her maiden voyage to Argentina . The steamer carried both luxury travelers and emigrants , mainly to South America. The ship covered the Hamburg – Buenos Aires route in just 15 days. It was used in the liner service between Hamburg - Madeira - Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. From November 1927 to August 1939, more than 200,000 passengers were transported on 91 trips. A famous passenger in 1928 was the aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont . On August 25, 1939, the Cap Arcona docked in Hamburg for the last time, coming from South America under the command of Commodore Richard Niejahr . On the same day, Niejahr learned of the impending war through an encrypted radio message.

From 1940 the Cap Arcona was used as an auxiliary ship by the German Navy and remained in the Baltic Sea. In the submarine base Gdynia (formerly Gdingen or Gotenhafen) it was used as a residential ship. During this time, it was also the setting for a film adaptation of the sinking of the Titanic . The film was made in 1943, but was no longer shown in Germany. From the end of 1944 the ship was used under the command of Johannes Gerdts to transport refugees from East Prussia to the west, then by the Navy. Gerdts committed suicide on February 20, 1945 on board his ship. On March 1, Heinrich Bertram was given command and undertook the second evacuation trip of refugees from the east. The planned third evacuation trip had to be omitted because the drive system was defective. The Cap Arcona was from April 14, 1945 because of engine trouble maneuver before Neustadt . It was therefore taken out of service by the Navy and placed under the Hamburg Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann , who was also the "Reich Commissioner for Maritime Shipping". The crew was reduced from 250 to 70 sailors.

Sinking of the Cap Arcona

The sinking point of the Cap Arcona

Embarkation of the concentration camp prisoners

Before the approaching British troops, the remaining concentration camp prisoners were transported from the Neuengamme concentration camp to Lübeck at the end of April. More than 9,000 prisoners were put on ships there. On April 20, 1945, over 4,000 prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp arrived in Lübeck's industrial port and were brought with their guard onto two smaller damaged ships, the Thielbek and the Athens . Prisoners were also temporarily housed on the Elmenhorst . On April 26, another 2,500 prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp and survivors of the death march from the Fürstengrube concentration camp and other Silesian camps arrived and were embarked on the Cap Arcona . The ship's captain at that time was Heinrich Bertram. He initially refused to allow the prisoners to embark, whereupon the SS arrested him at the beginning of May and wanted to shoot him for refusing to give orders . Only now did he give in to violence: "[I] I have a wife and two children, and for this reason I will obey the orders of madness." At times the Cap Arcona was completely overcrowded with 7,500 prisoners on board. Inadequate nutrition and inadequate hygienic conditions led to mass deaths.

On April 30, 1945, all concentration camp prisoners of French nationality and some Belgians and Dutch were brought from the ships to the shore and transported with the “white buses” of the Swedish Red Cross to two steamers, which took them to Trelleborg . Finally, some of the prisoners were transferred from the Cap Arcona to the other two ships, so that at the beginning of May there were around 4600 prisoners and 500 sailors, flak sailors and guards on the Cap Arcona . The number of people on the Cap Arcona varies in various descriptions between 4500 and 6000. The number of Jews on Cap Arcona and Thielbek was about 100 people.

Attack and sinking

On May 3, 1945 , the Cap Arcona and Germany lay in the Lübeck Bay between Neustadt and Scharbeutz . The Deutschland was attacked in a first wave of attacks by the RAF's 184th Squadron . Thereupon 80 persons of the hull crew left the ship. There were no concentration camp inmates on the ship. In the second wave of attacks by the 197th Squadron, the Deutschland was sunk at around 16:08 GMT.

The Athen stayed in Neustadt in the naval port, the Thielbek brought prisoners to the Cap Arcona . Since the ships were not specially marked and equipped with on-board weapons, they were mistaken for troop transports by Allied aviators from the military airfield Plantlünne / Wesel . The major attack of 200 battle planes of the type Hawker Typhoon Mk. IB, armed with four 20 mm machine guns Hispano Mk. II and kg optionally two bombs 227 or eight unguided air to surface rockets type RP-3, the RAF was numerous ships that were moored in the Bay of Kiel and Lübeck and was intended to prevent the suspected withdrawal of German troops across the Baltic Sea. 23 ships were sunk and 115 ships damaged.

The burning Cap Arcona shortly after the attack

The Cap Arcona was attacked in four waves by British Air Force fighters and set on fire. The attacks by the 198th Squadron brought Cap Arcona and Thielbek out of control at around 15:00 GMT. The Thielbek sank after 15 minutes. The Cap Arcona lay on its side; But it did not sink due to the shallow water.

Death of the concentration camp prisoners

Around 6,400 of the 7,000 or so concentration camp inmates on the Cap Arcona and Thielbek rivers burned, drowned or were shot. Since the water temperature was only 8 ° C that day, most of the prisoners could not swim to the shore because their strength had failed beforehand. There were also attacks with on-board weapons by British pilots on the floating survivors.

Effective rescue measures were delayed. Only a small proportion of the prisoners were picked up by boats, which were primarily concerned with rescuing members of the Navy. The prisoners fighting for their lives in the water were shot at from other boats, for example from a “flotilla of German war fishing cutters ”.

The sinking belongs to those of the Wilhelm Gustloff and the Goya (also in 1945 in the Baltic Sea) and the Japanese troop and prisoner transporters Jun'yō Maru (5620 dead), Toyama Maru (5500 dead) and Ryusei Maru (4998 dead) in 1944 most lossy shipwrecks.

Survivors

The 400 survivors included Erwin Geschonneck , who later was one of the most successful actors in the GDR , and Ernst Goldenbaum , a later GDR peasant functionary and politician, as well as the composer of the moor soldiers' song Rudi Goguel , the Czech composer Emil František Burian , like Heinz Lord , is a member of the Hamburg resistance group Candidates of Humanity , who became General Secretary of the World Medical Association in 1960 . The author Sam Pivnik , originally from Będzin (Poland), also survived the sinking of the Cap Arcona . In his book Survivor - Auschwitz, The Death March and My Fight for Freedom , he reports in detail on the events on the ship that he reached at the end of the death march from the Fürstengrube concentration camp .

Wim J. Alosery was brought to Germany from the Netherlands for forced labor . At the beginning of the attack he managed to get into the Baltic Sea via a rope on the aft deck of the Cap Arcona, to reach land in a lifeboat, to stay in a soldiers' barracks and to return to the Netherlands after a few days.

Other survivors were Evginij Malychin (Ukraine) and Bogdan Suchowiak .

Different interpretations

Himmler's policy had been contradicting and changeable since the end of 1944. The sources make it difficult to reconstruct the concepts, plans and intentions of the decision-makers. The question of what should happen to the concentration camp prisoners on the ships therefore leaves room for various interpretations.

1. Interpretation: Planned mass killing

The prisoners themselves expressed the suspicion that the SS had the firm intention of sinking the ships with all the prisoners on board in the Baltic Sea. The media also often resort to this interpretation and show that the National Socialist guards planned from the beginning to kill the prisoners.

This interpretation is underpinned, among other things, in the publications by Wilhelm Lange and Rudi Goguel. Several clues are cited in the literature: While the first prisoners arrived on the Cap Arcona , the SS uninstalled all escape routes and blocked the lifeboats. The automatic bulkheads were destroyed and the ship refueled with a small amount of fuel, which was sufficient as a fire accelerator .

A variant of this interpretation can be found in the latest publications by Wilhelm Lange: According to this, "the National Socialists ultimately set a trap for the Allies to annihilate the prisoners" by not marking the prisoner ships with white flags and thus provoking a fatal attack to avoid the planned annihilation to be able to achieve without one's own intervention and seemingly innocent. Lange himself points out, however, that the raising of white flags was strictly prohibited and threatened with the severest collective punishments.

An order from Heinrich Himmler of April 18, 1945 is also often cited, not to let the concentration camp prisoners fall alive into the hands of the Allied forces. Historians Herbert Diercks and Michael Grill are convinced that Himmler's central order to kill all concentration camp prisoners was not given. Rather, the order to the Flossenbürg concentration camp gave priority to the evacuation. Only when evacuation is no longer possible should the prisoners be killed so that the civilian population is protected from riots.

2nd interpretation: alternative quarters

A second thesis, advocated by the historian Karin Orth and the author Heinz Schön, denies the intention to destroy. Rather, the effort is recognizable to keep the prisoners under control. The incapable of maneuvering ships offered themselves as emergency accommodation.

Some of the evidence put forward by the representatives of the first interpretation can be explained differently. The small amount of fuel is needed to operate the emergency power supply units. Rather, it needs to be explained why French concentration camp prisoners were housed on board until April 30, 1945 and put at risk if they were to be released. It should also be pointed out that on May 3, in addition to the prisoners, almost 500 men were on board as crew, guards and air defense.

The historian Herbert Diercks and the author Michael Grill state that the ships were only used as a provisional concentration camp: “There is no evidence of any further intentions.” Karin Orth examined the overall complex of evacuating concentration camps and identified the “factual effort” as a common feature to keep the concentration camp inmates under control. "For whatever purpose: as work slaves who were supposed to set up an impregnable fortress, as hostages for the intended negotiations with the Western powers or as a disposition [...]"

3rd interpretation: intermediate station

A third interpretation goes back to the statements of those responsible for the Nazi crime. In the course of preliminary investigations, SS-Obersturmbannführer Paul Werner Hoppe , camp commandant of the Stutthof and Wöbbelin concentration camps , and Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann claimed that the prisoners should be brought to Sweden. Karin Orth considers this claim to be unprovable, but does not completely rule out this version as “conceivable”. Diercks / Grill, on the other hand, describe this interpretation as an obvious "protective claim", since the ships were unable to make such voyages due to technical defects.

Excursus: The shooting of the Stutthof prisoners

The murder of the Stutthof prisoners is often mentioned in connection with the Cap Arcona disaster. These were prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig who the SS had transported across the Baltic Sea in barges, mostly Jews, but also some Finnish soldiers. They were originally supposed to be shipped to the Cap Arcona as well, but were turned away because the ships were overcrowded. In view of the military situation and the advance of British advance commands, the SS guards left the barges. The ships drifted ashore where the prisoners went in search of food in the Neustadt area in the early morning of May 3rd. Frightened citizens of Neustadt, members of the navy as well as a disabled unit and the Volkssturm then rounded up the prisoners in the so-called “collection action” and shot almost 300 of them, including women and children. The remainder were taken to the Athens , which was on the naval harbor quay, where several of them fell victim to the air raids. After becoming aware of the massacre, the British city commandant released Neustadt for looting - probably also in order not to have to organize the supplies for the surviving prisoners of the Cap Arcona , the Thielbek and the Athens in this way.

Some reports wrongly link the shootings to survivors from the Cap Arcona . In fact, the survivors of the air strike only reached the beach in front of Neustadt immediately before or at the same time as the British arrived in the city, while the shootings took place in the early hours of the morning before the air strike.

The public prosecutor's office at the Lübeck Regional Court has closed the investigation into unknown persons in connection with the murder of the Stutthof prisoners in November 2015 (file number 702 Js 22512/84). The files went to the Schleswig-Holstein State Archives in Lübeck . The files contain personal investigations and interrogations from the period 1949–1986.

memory

Work-up

Model of the Cap Arcona (1927)

To date, the responsibility of German and British participants in the sinking of the concentration camp ships has not been dealt with in court. The British armed forces probably received information from a Red Cross delegation in Lübeck on the evening of May 2 that there were prisoners on the ship; this notice apparently did not reach the deployed flight squadrons. To this day, it is controversial whether the bombing of alleged troop transports was necessary and justified at this point in time to shorten the war. The Royal Air Force itself kept a low profile on the incident and only referred in general terms to the goal, with the attack on several ships in the Bay of Lübeck, known as a big shipping strike , the withdrawal of Wehrmacht and SS staff into the - Allied troops still unoccupied - to prevent Norway.

The burned-out wrecks of Cap Arcona and Germany lay in the Bay of Lübeck for years after the war . It was not until 1950 that divers began to dismantle the hull; the steel parts were then scrapped. Since the Cap Arcona had capsized, most of the dead were still inside the ship. This made the disposal of the ships very difficult. Only the Thielbek was salvaged and repaired. Until the late 1960s, beach vacationers found bone fragments of the victims in the sand.

Cemeteries around the Bay of Lübeck

  • Memorial stone for 31 victims of Cap Arcona in the cemetery of Grube (Holstein)

  • Memorial stele for 91 victims in the church cemetery of the St. Nicolaikirche in Grömitz

  • Memorial stone in the Cap Arcona cemetery on the beach in Neustadt in Holstein in memory of the 7000 dead. Commemorate 70 years. 621 victims rest in the cemetery of honor on the beach in Neustadt / Holstein.

  • Jewish cemetery on Grasweg in Neustadt in Holstein for 100 Jewish victims of the sinking of the Cap Arcona

  • Reference to the Scharbeutz-Haffkrug cemetery of honor for 1,128 victims of the Cap Arcona sinking

  • Memorial at the forest cemetery Timmendorfer Strand for 810 victims of the Cap Arcona

  • Flowers by the parish of Niendorf (Baltic Sea) for the 70th year of the Cap Arcona tragedy on the memorial stone in the cemetery of Niendorf (Baltic Sea) for 113 victims

In total, around 7,000 people died in the sinking of the ships Cap Arcona and Thielbek after an attack by the Royal Air Force in Neustädter Bucht - almost all of them concentration camp prisoners. Many of the dead were washed up on the shores of the Bay of Lübeck. At the former anchorages of the Cap Arcona and Thielbek there are still skeletal parts of 3,000 unburied victims at a depth of 17 meters.

The cemeteries on the Bay of Lübeck with victims of the disaster are listed below in an anti-clockwise direction:

Schleswig-Holstein

In the Grube (Holstein) cemetery there is a mass grave for 31 nameless concentration camp prisoners of the Cap Arcona disaster. The cemetery is located on the outskirts directly on the B 501 and is separated from it by tall green hedges. A boulder with an inscription marks the grave field, which is to the right of the cemetery chapel ( location ).

In Grömitz , 91 victims of the Cap Arcona disaster are buried in the cemetery behind the St. Nicolaikirche. A memorial stone commemorates them ( location ). The Nicolaikirche stands inland in the old town center near the town hall.

The Cap Arcona cemetery of honor is located on the beach promenade of Neustadt in Holstein in the direction of Pelzerhaken near the place where it went down . The small street Kiebitzberg goes to the beach path. From there the Stutthofweg leads to the cemetery ( Lage ). 621 victims rest in the enclosed mass grave. A memorial stone in the middle of the cemetery commemorates all 7,000 victims from 24 countries of origin. Between the promenade and the beach, the course of the disaster and the position of the ships at that time are documented on two steles. Every year on May 3rd there is a memorial event.

In Neustadt there are further cemeteries with victims of the Cap Arcona bombing; so also on the former institutional cemetery on Parkweg, the cemetery of the provincial sanatorium and nursing home near Neustadt in Holstein.

A larger memorial for 1,128 victims is the cemetery of honor for those who died in the Cap Arcona and Thielbek disaster near Haffkrug (in Schleswig-Holstein ). It is located near the Haffkrug train station on the Haffkrug motorway to the Eutin motorway exit in a wood just behind the motorway entrance ( location ).

Further south, 810 prisoners were buried in the forest cemetery of the municipality of Timmendorfer Strand . The forest cemetery is on the B76 between Timmendorfer Strand and Ostseetherme Scharbeutz. Inside the cemetery opposite the old cemetery chapel there is an anonymous mass grave that is covered with green lawn ( location ). Inside the lawn are 16 round areas with rose bushes, which are reminiscent of the 16 nations from which the Cap Arcona victims come. At the head end of the grave field there is a memorial wall with a high cross and a memorial plaque. On the anniversary of the bombing, May 3rd, wreaths are laid in memory of the state of Schleswig-Holstein , the Ostholstein district and the Timmendorfer Strand community. In the old cemetery chapel, information boards remind of what is happening. Books and finds from divers, a prisoner's shoe and a coal shovel are on display in a showcase.

113 victims are buried in the community cemetery of Niendorf , a district of Timmendorfer Strand. The cemetery is located at the end of the village on the road from Niendorf to Häven (Ratekau) . The anonymous mass grave is located on the path between the cemetery entrance and the cemetery chapel and is divided into two grave fields that are covered with green lawn ( location ). At the head of the grave fields, the dead "political prisoners" are remembered on a boulder.

At the Vorwerker Friedhof in Lübeck there is a grave field for 183 victims who died when the concentration camp prisoners were embarked in Lübeck's industrial port ( location ). At the Jewish cemetery in Lübeck-Moisling , a memorial plaque and gravestones remember 38 Jewish women from the Lübberstedt subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, who were on the transport train that was to take them to Neustadt in Holstein on the Cap Arcona during an English low-flying attack in early May 1945 . died near Eutin.

There are 25 other unknown victims of the Cap Arcona and the Thielbek in the Eichhof park cemetery in Kiel , who were cleared from emergency graves on the beach in Neustadt in 1961 and 1962 and reburied in Kiel.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

  • Grove-like cemetery / memorial in Grevesmühlen for 407 dead from the sinking of the Cap Arcona

  • Foot / cycle path to the Cap Arcona Groß Schwansee memorial

  • Memorial for the dead of the Cap Arcona near Groß Schwansee

  • Mass grave for 16 victims and memorial for the victims of Cap Arcona in the old cemetery in Klütz

  • Memorial for the dead of Cap Arcona on the island of Poel

Many corpses were driven across the Baltic Sea to the beaches of the island of Poel ( Wismar Bay in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania).

407 bodies were initially buried near Groß Schwansee ( Grevesmühlen district ).

Due to the extension of the border with a restricted area, the temporary memorial was removed, the dead were reburied in Grevesmühlen in 1955 and a memorial was later erected there on the Tannenberg. This became the central memorial within the GDR. The Cap Arcona (Grevesmühlen) cemetery / memorial is laid out as a round grove in the forest. The cemetery is south of the train station. From the parking lot at Tannenbergstraße 27, a footpath leads to the cemetery in the forest ( Lage ).

In 2006, another memorial complex was erected in Groß Schwansee where the victims of the disaster who were not buried can also be remembered. Every year around May 3, the victim is commemorated by a memorial tour by around 150 cyclists from Grevesmühlen to the former mass grave near Groß Schwansee. A direct road leads from Kalkhorst to a parking lot near the beach. From there a path leads to the foot / cycle path that runs along the Baltic Sea. The memorial ( Lage ) is two kilometers to the west .

16 dead from the sinking of the Cap Arcona are buried in the old cemetery (near the kindergarten) in Klütz . The mass grave and memorial are in the middle of the main path of the Old Cemetery (not the New Cemetery), then to the side ( location ).

28 victims are buried at the Kirchdorf auf Poel island cemetery. Today there is a small memorial in the Schwarzer Busch part of the municipality near the beach , which provides information about the sinking of the ships ( location ).

Artistic reception: Alfred Hrdlicka's “Memorial Against War” at Hamburg's Dammtor

Hrdlicka's escape group Cap Arcona as part of the area near Hamburg's Dammtor

The fate of the victims of the sinking of the Cap Arcona is thematically addressed in part of the Hamburg memorial against the war by Alfred Hrdlicka . The ensemble of sculptures at the Dammtor serves as a counter-project to the 76 monument, which was perceived as glorifying the war, and shows, among other things, a group of people made of marble that is caught by a large wave and is intended to represent the sinking of the Cap Arcona . The inauguration of this second part of the Hrdlicka monument, entitled Escape Group Cap Arcona, took place on September 29, 1986. Another part of the memorial is dedicated to the victims of the so-called Hamburg firestorm in the course of the Allied air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 ( Operation Gomorrah ).

Museums and Documentaries

Museums

In Neustadt in Holstein there is the Museum Cap Arcona as part of the Museum of the City of Neustadt in Holstein on Kremper Strasse at the Kremper Tor . The permanent exhibition Cap Arcona (luxury liners, disaster and commemoration) is located in the Grevesmühlen Municipal Museum on the church square . In the museum of the island of Poel is also Cap Arcona disaster is expected.

Dates and certificates of death

At the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial , the dates of those who died in the Cap Arcona disaster were centrally documented.

Pictures from contemporary witnesses

  • Berl Friedler: The sinking of the prisoner fleet in front of Neustadt. Drawing.

Representation in the film

  • In 1981/82 GDR television produced the film Der Mann von der 'Cap Arcona' , which themed the story of Erwin Geschonneck during the sinking of the Cap Arcona .
  • In 1995, Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR) co-produced a documentary film about the events of May 3, 1945 under the title The 'Cap Arcona' case (Absolut Medien).

See also

literature

  • E. Luchsinger: twin screw turbine steamer "Cap Arcona". In: Journal of the Association of German Engineers , Volume 71, No. 47 (November 19, 1927), pp. 1633–1639.
  • Rudi Goguel : Cap Arcona - Report on the sinking of the prisoner fleet in the Bay of Lübeck on May 3, 1945. Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main 1972/1982 , ISBN 3-87682-756-6 (= library of resistance ).
  • Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona , Struves Buchdruckerei u. Verlag, Eutin 1988, ISBN 3-923457-08-1
  • Günther Schwarberg : Target "Cap Arcona" , Steidl, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-88243-590-9
  • Claus Rothe: German ocean passenger ships 1919–1985 , Transpress, Verlag für Verkehrwesen Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-344-00059-4 .
  • Karin Orth : Plans and orders of the SS leadership for the evacuation of the concentration camp system. In: Detlef Garbe: Prisoners Between Annihilation and Liberation. The dissolution of the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite camps by the SS in spring 1945. Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-86108-799-5 , pp. 33–44.
  • Herbert Diercks , Michael Grill: The evacuation of the Neuengamme concentration camp and the catastrophe on May 3, 1945 in the Bay of Lübeck. A collective review. In: End of War and Liberation. Bremen 1995 ISBN 3-86108-266-7 (contributions to the history of National Socialist persecution in Northern Germany 2/1995) pp. 175–183
  • Wilhelm Lange: Latest findings on the bombing of the concentration camp ships in the Neustädter Bucht on May 3, 1945: Prehistory, course and responsibilities. In: Detlef Garbe; Carmen Lange, Ed .: Inmates between annihilation and liberation. The dissolution of the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite camps by the SS in the spring of 1945 . Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-86108-799-5 , pp. 217-232
  • Sven Schiffner: Cap Arcona commemoration in the GDR: commemoration, popular sport, propaganda. In: Detlef Garbe, Carmen Lange (ed.): Prisoners between annihilation and liberation. Bremen 2005.
  • Sam Pivnik : Survivor. Auschwitz, The Death March and My Fight for Freedom . Hodde & Stougthon Ltd., London 2012, ISBN 978-1-4447-5838-2 .
  • Stefan Ineichen : Cap Arcona 1927 - 1945. Fairytale ship and mass grave. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-85791-769-1

Web links

Commons : Cap Arcona (Schiff, 1927)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Sebastian Rosenkötter: "Cap Arcona": Built for the rich, grave for concentration camp inmates. In: Lübecker Nachrichten of May 14, 2017, p. 22.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt Holstein 2014, p. 61.
  3. ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Neustadt Holstein 2014, p. 62
  4. ↑ Documentation of the memorials to the disaster at Cap Arcona in: Gedenkstättenrundbrief 137, pp. 3–13, accessed on May 13, 2013
  5. ^ Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial (ed.): A concentration camp is being cleared. Prisoners between annihilation and liberation. Bremen 2000, ISBN 3-86108-764-2 , p. 55
  6. ↑ a b Bernd Ulrich : The tragedy of the "Cap Arcona". In: DLF . May 3, 2020, accessed May 4, 2020 .
  7. ^ Borgan Suchowiak: May 1945: The tragedy of the prisoners of Neuengamme. Reinbek / Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-499-15537-0 , p. 138
  8. ↑ Alfred Dudszus, Alfred Köpcke: The great book of ship types . Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89350-831-7 (p. 68 (5100) licensed edition by transpress, Berlin).
  9. ↑ Thies Völker: Lexicon of famous ships. Spectacular adventures from Noah's Ark to the Titanic . Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-8218-1625-2 (p. 92 (4500)).
  10. ^ Otto J. Seiler: Course South America . Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-8132-0523-1 (p. 67 (4600)).
  11. ^ Claus Rothe: German ocean passenger ships. 1919 to 1985 . 1st edition. transpress Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-341-00805-5 (p. 107 (6000)).
  12. ^ Witthöft, Hans Jürgen: The German merchant fleet 1939 - 1945 . Volume 2: Merchant ships, blockade breakers, auxiliary warships. Muster-Schmidt Verlagsgesellschaft, Göttingen 1971 (p. 203 (5000)).
  13. ↑ Wilhelm Lange: Myth and Reality. In: Schiff und Zeit / Panorama maritim , No. 52, autumn 2000, p. 30.
  14. ↑ Wilhelm Lange: Myth and Reality. In: Schiff und Zeit / Panorama maritim , No. 52, autumn 2000, p. 28.
  15. ↑ The operational port of Plantlünne. Relict.com
  16. ↑ 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
  17. ↑ Wilhelm Lange: Myth and Reality. In: Schiff und Zeit / Panorama maritim , No. 52, autumn 2000, p. 28.
  18. ^ Wilhelm Lange: The latest findings on the bombing of the concentration camp ships in the Neustädter Bucht on May 3, 1945: Prehistory, course and responsibilities. In: Detlef Garbe; Carmen Lange, Ed .: Inmates between annihilation and liberation. The dissolution of the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite camps by the SS in the spring of 1945 . Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-86108-799-5 , p. 228.
  19. ↑ www.sampivnik.org
  20. ↑ Contemporary witness remembers the Cap Arcona tragedy. In: Lübecker Nachrichten of May 4, 2013, p. 15.
  21. ↑ (left to right) Wim Alosery
  22. ↑ 70th anniversary of the Cap Arcona disaster. In: The Reporter of April 29, 2015, p. 6.
  23. ↑ Daniel Blatman: The Death Marches - Decision Makers , Murderers and Victims. In: Ulrich Herbert u. a. (Ed.): The National Socialist Concentration Camps. ISBN 3-596-15516-9 , Vol. 2, p. 1069.
  24. ↑ Karin Orth: Plans and orders of the SS leadership for the evacuation of the concentration camp system. In: Detlef Garbe: Prisoners Between Annihilation and Liberation. The dissolution of the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite camps by the SS in the spring of 1945 . Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-86108-799-5 , p. 33.
  25. ↑ End of War ARD ( Memento from March 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) and HH Abendblatt
  26. ↑ last 2005, see section literature
  27. ^ Rudi Goguel: Cap Arcona. Report on the sinking of the prisoner fleet in the Bay of Lübeck on May 3, 1945. Frankfurt / M. 1972, ISBN 3-87682-756-6
  28. ^ Wilhelm Lange: The latest findings on the bombing of the concentration camp ships in the Neustädter Bucht on May 3, 1945: Prehistory, course and responsibilities. In: Detlef Garbe: Prisoners Between Annihilation and Liberation. The dissolution of the Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite camps by the SS in the spring of 1945 . Bremen 2005, ISBN 3-86108-799-5 , p. 226
  29. ↑ Often wrongly dated April 14th. Compare: Stanislaw Zamecnik: No prisoner may fall alive into the hands of the enemy. On the existence of the Himmler order from 14./18. April 1945. In: Dachauer Hefte 1 (1985) pp. 219-231
  30. ^ Herbert Diercks, Michael Grill: The evacuation of the Neuengamme concentration camp and the catastrophe on May 3, 1945 in the Bay of Lübeck. A collective review. In: End of War and Liberation. Bremen 1995, ISBN 3-86108-266-7 , p. 175f
  31. ↑ Karin Orth: Planning ... In: Detlef Garbe: Prisoners ... ISBN 3-86108-799-5 , pp. 33–44.
  32. ↑ Heinz Schön: The Cap Arcona disaster. Stuttgart 1989
  33. ↑ Herbert Diercks, Michael Grill: Die Evakuierung ... in: ISBN 3-86108-266-7 , p. 177.
  34. ↑ Karin Orth: Planning ... In: Detlef Garbe: Prisoners ... ISBN 3-86108-799-5 , p. 43
  35. ↑ Karin Orth: Planning ... In: Detlef Garbe: Prisoners ... ISBN 3-86108-799-5 , p. 44
  36. ↑ Herbert Diercks, Michael Grill: Die Evakuierung ... in: ISBN 3-86108-266-7 , p. 175f
  37. ^ Wilhelm Lange: Cap Arcona. Eutin 1988, p. 82 ff
  38. ↑ Sebastian Rosenkötter: The murder of 208 Jews in Neustadt remains unpunished. In: Lübecker Nachrichten , May 3, 2018, p. 15.
  39. ↑ cf. Cap Arcona commemoration. In: Help or Trade. Rescue attempts for victims of Nazi persecution. Bremen 2007, ISBN 3-86108-874-6 , p. 170.
  40. ↑ cf. Herbert Diercks, Michael Grill: The evacuation ... In: ISBN 3-86108-266-7 , p. 178.
  41. ↑ Overview of the cemeteries with victims of the Cap Arcona disaster at volksbund.de
  42. ↑ a b Cap-Arcona Memorial Support Group, Politische Memoriale e. V. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Ed.): Cap Arcona May 3, 1945. Memorials, museums, cemeteries. Leaflet from around 2012.
  43. ^ Cemeteries with victims of May 3, 1945 in Neustadt
  44. ↑ Plaque in the jury's court room of the Burgkloster cultural forum in Lübeck. Image from the Schreiber archive.
  45. ↑ Albrecht Schreiber: Victims of concentration camps in the Lübeck-Moisling Jewish cemetery . In: Ohlsdorf - Zeitschrift für Trauerkultur , Issue 72, I, 2001 - February 2000
  46. ↑ Documentation of the memorials to the disaster at Cap Arcona in: Gedenkstättenrundbrief 137, pp. 3–13, accessed on May 13, 2013
  47. ↑ source u. a .: Freundeskreis Aktuell. Messages from the Friends of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial e. V.
  48. ↑ Remembrance of “Cap Arcona” victims: memorial tour with 150 cyclists. In: Lübecker Nachrichten of May 5, 2013, p. 17.
  49. ↑ gedenkstaetten-in-hamburg.de ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gedenkstaetten-in-hamburg.de
  50. ↑ fhh1.hamburg.de
  51. ↑ Central documentation of the dead and personal research for the Cap Arcona victims in the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial
  52. ↑ The mayor of the community of Sierksdorf, c / o Amt Holstein-Mitte (ed.): Sierksdorfer Wegsteine ​​are memorials for 7,000 concentration camp victims of the Cap-Arcona disaster of May 3, 1945. Approx. 2012.
  53. ↑ The Man from Cap Arcona in the Internet Movie Database (English)