The Cap Arcona was a large German luxury ocean liner, formerly of the Hamburg-South America line. It was sunk in 1945, with the loss of many lives while laden with prisoners from concentration camps.
HistoryThe 27,561 gross ton Cap Arcona, named after Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, was launched in 1927. It was considered one of the most beautiful ships of the time. It was the largest German ship on the South American run. It carried upper-class travelers and steerage-class emigrants, mostly to South America.[1]
In 1940, it was taken over by the Kriegsmarine and used in the Baltic Sea as an accommodation ship. In 1942 it was used as a stand-in for the doomed Titanic in the German film version of the disaster. In early 1945, the Kriegsmarine reactivated it for Operation Hannibal, and it was used to transport 25,795 German soldiers and civilians from East Prussia to western Germany.
In the last few weeks of the war in Europe, the Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte, vice-president of the Red Cross, was organising the removal of Danish and Norwegian prisoners from German concentration camps to neutral Sweden — a scheme known as the White Buses. In practice, the scheme also included other nationalities.
On April 26, 1945, the Cap Arcona was loaded with prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg and was brought into the Bay of Lübeck along with two smaller ships, Athen and Thielbek.
On April 30, 1945, two Swedish ships Magdalena and Lillie Matthiessen sailed from Lübeck, the first with 223 western European prisoners, for the most part French-speaking, who were transferred from the Thielbek to the Magdalena, and the second with 225 women from Ravensbrück on board for transportation to hospitals in Sweden. This first rescue operation possibly used information from British Intelligence, indicating possible knowledge of the prisoners on board.
On May 2, 1945, Second Army reached the towns of Lübeck and Wismar. No.6 Commando, 1st Special Service Brigade commanded by Brigadier Derek Mills-Roberts, and 11th Armoured Division commanded by Major-General George P. B. Roberts entered Lübeck without resistance. The International Red Cross informed George P. B. Roberts that 7,000-8,000 prisoners were on board ships in Bay of Lübeck.[4]
Bay of Lübeck, three kilometers from Neustadt (left at the top): Position of the sinking of Cap Arcona.
AttacksOn May 3, 1945, four days after Hitler's suicide but four days before the unconditional surrender of Germany, the Cap Arcona, the Thielbek, and the passenger liner SS Deutschland, possibly converted to a hospital ship but not marked as such, were attacked by RAF Typhoons of 83 Group of the 2nd Tactical Air Force commanded by Sir Arthur Coningham as part of general attacks on shipping in the Baltic.
Typhoon 1 B with four 20 mm cannons.The attacks were by No. 184 Squadron, based at RAF Hustedt, led by Squadron Leader Derek L. Stevenson, by No. 193 Squadron, based in Ahlhorn (Großenkneten), led by Squadron Leader D. M. Taylor, by No. 263 Squadron, based in RAF Ahlhorn, led by Squadron Leader Martin Trevor Scott Rumbold, by No. 197 Squadron RAF, led by Squadron Leader K. J. Harding also at Ahlhorn, and by No. 198 Squadron based at Plantlünne led by Group Captain Johnny Baldwin. These Hawker Typhoon Mark 1B fighter-bombers used High Explosive 60 lb rocket projectiles, bombs, and 20 mm cannons.
Unknown to the RAF[5], the ships were carrying between 7,000-8,000 prisoners from the German concentration camps in Neuengamme, Stutthof and Mittelbau-Dora, half of whom were Russian and Polish prisoners-of-war, along with others from 24 nations, including French, Danish, and Dutch.[6]
The survivors of the attack who reached the shore were shot by SS troops, although 350 prisoners managed to escape the massacre. Allan Wyse, formerly of 193 Fighter Squadron, said "We used our cannon fire at the chaps in the water … we shot them up with 20 mm cannons in the water. Horrible thing, but we were told to do it and we did it. That's war."[7] Among the survivors was Erwin Geschonneck, who later became a notable German actor, and whose story was made into a film in 1982.
About 490 of the guards, SS, and crew were rescued by German boats.
Photos of the burning ships, listed as Deutschland, Thielbek, and Cap Arcona, and survivors swimming in the cold Baltic Sea (seven degrees Celsius), were taken on a reconnaissance mission over the Bay of Lübeck by F-6 aircraft of the USAAF's 161st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron around 5:00 pm, shortly after the attack.[citation needed] The capsized hulk of the Cap Arcona later drifted ashore, and the beached wreck was broken up in 1949.
For weeks after the attack, the bodies of victims washed ashore, where they were collected and buried in mass graves at Neustadt in Holstein, Scharbeutz and Timmendorfer Strand.[8] For nearly thirty years, parts of skeletons continued to wash ashore, until the last find, by a twelve-year-old boy, in 1971.[9]
According to documents at the Dutch Institute of War Documentation (NIOD), the government of Sweden had warned the British government that prisoners were aboard the ships.[citation needed]
The prisoners were of 28 different nationalities: American, Belarussian, Belgian, Canadian, Czechoslovakian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourger, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swiss, Ukrainian, Yugoslavian and others.
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