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Seen as an agricultural utopia within Hitler's Germany, it is often the view that both East and West Prussia had remained relatively untouched during the Second World War. Yet the violence, prejudice and murder associated with the National Socialist regime that brought most of Europe to ruin were widespread throughout Prussia during its brief existence.
When the MV
Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by a Russian submarine just after 9pm on 30 January 1945, 9,343 passengers - 5,000 of them children - would perish. It was the worst loss of life in maritime history, six times greater than that of the RMS Titanic.
Launched by Adolf Hitler on 5 May 1937 and the KdF (Kraft durch Freude = Strength through Joy) as a recreational and propaganda tool, the MV
Wilhelm Gustloff would suffer the same fate as the nation it once represented. Yet 75 years later, her tragic story is still unknown to many.
Combining existing material and new findings, this book tells the story of Prussia's rise and fall as a military power, the attempts by brave civilians as well as military personnel determined to overturn the evil regime they had made an oath to serve and the desperate evacuation of refugees to the West in one of the greatest exodus ever seen, told by those who were there.
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Born in to a military family, Tim Heath's interest in history led him to research the air war of the Second World War, focussing on the German Luftwaffe and writing extensively for The Armourer Magazine. During the course of his research he has worked closely with the German War Graves Commission at Kassel, Germany, and met with German families and veterans alike.
Zusammenfassung
Examines the lives of those who lived in East and West Prussia under the Third Reich era, their role in Germany's aspirations for world domination, those who survived the Soviet massacres that took place in the region and those who survived the greatest maritime disaster in history.
