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 Nearly 400 Kitchener-Waterloo residents had the privilege of
attending the showing of "Sinking the Gustloff", a 46 Minute documentary
about the sinking of passenger/refugee ship "Wilhem Gustloff" shortly
after leaving the port of Gotenhafen (Gdynia) (near Danzig) for
Kiel on January 30, 1945, three months before the war ended.
Russian Submarine S-13, commandeered by Captain Alexander Marinesko,
fired 3 torpedoes at the Gustloff, which was positioned 30 km offshore
in the deep icy water of the Baltic Sea. The air temperature at
the time was between -10° and -18° Celsius. The Gustloff plowed
through fields of ice floes. All 3 torpedoes hit their intended
target.
The ship was originally built in 1937 as a flag cruise ship of the
Third Reich to accommodate 1,463 passengers and a crew of 417 -
see also website http://www.wilhelmgustloff.com/
and
www.maritimequest.com/liners/wilhelm_gustloff.
But as a refugee ship it was carrying 10,582 crew and passengers,
including 8,956 refugees - mostly women and children fleeing the
advancing Russian Army. 9,343 lives were lost.
The Titanic has always been labeled the worst maritime disaster
in history. It carried 2,227 passengers and crew. 1,522 lives perished
in that tragedy.
When Marcus Kolga (RealWorld Pictures) first heard of the Gustloff,
he was shocked to realize that few people had ever heard of it.
This motivated him to extensively research the Gustloff’s sinking.
And when he managed to locate survivors, he produced and directed
"Sinking the Gustloff", supported financially solely by Rogers Communications.
The documentary sheds historical light on the tragedy from all sides,
based on the historical consequences of the war and the advancing
Russian Army, on the memories of survivors, and on interviews with
historians, including an interview with a Russian historian, who
explained the motivations and situation of Submarine captain Alexander
Marinesko and his crew.
Survivors
Eva Rothschild-Dorn, Heinz Schön and Horst Woit talked in the film
about their experience during and after the sinking, their emotions
and nightmares, making reference to film sequences as presented.
In the film, Dr. Alfred de Zayas, Legal Expert on Displacement (Vertreibung)
and Ethnic Cleansing,
Retired Senior Lawyer with the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, and Professor of International Law
in Geneva
assessed the torpedoing to be a war crime.
What made the screening of this film at the Transylvania Club in
Kitchener doubly fascinating was that Producer/Director Marcus Kolga
was there in person to answer questions. And, amazingly, he was
accompanied by a survivor of this tragedy, Mr. Horst Woit, who at
the time of the sinking was 10 years old. The audience bombarded
the two with questions.
Horst Woit seemed at times to be reliving the horror of that night
again and again. The story of his personal circumstances brought
the events ever closer to the audience, 63 years after the event.
And yes, lives lost in this maritime tragedy far exceeded that of
the Titanic, each with its own circumstances, history and human
shortcomings. With that alone as a criterion, the "Wilhelm Gustloff"
is documented to be the worst maritime disaster of all time.
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