‘Death in the Baltic: The World War II Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff’, by Cathryn J. Prince – review

Wilhelm Gustloff was a Nazi leader in Switzerland, who was shot dead in his Davos apartment by a Croatian Jewish medical student in 1936. Hitler at the ensuing state funeral promised that Gustloff would remain ‘immortal’ under the Third Reich. But his name is now only remembered because it was bestowed on a ship which later sank with the highest loss of life in maritime history. The torpedoing of the Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic in 1945 took an estimated 9,400 lives. This is double the number who perished with the Doña Paz in the Philippines in 1987, and far outstrips the 1,523 lost on Titanic in 1912.

The Nazis built Wilhelm Gustloff at a cost exceeding £2 million as ‘the crown jewel’ of their Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) fleet of cruise liners. It was launched at Hamburg by Hitler in 1937. On board, during cruises to Fascist Mediterranean climes, Aryan workers could tan themselves, exercise and relax in the ship’s gymnasium, swimming-pool, cinema and concert-hall.