• The Wilhelm Gustloff was originally to be named the Adolf Hitler.  The assassination of Gustloff in Switzerland offered an opportunity to create a Nazi martyr.  While sitting next to Gustloff’s widow during the memorial service, the superstitious Hitler seized an opportunity for the name change.

• The Gustloff has sometimes been referred to as the world’s first “purpose-built” cruise ship.  However, according to P&O Cruises of Australia, in 1932 it launched the first ship designed primarily for pleasure cruising – The Strathaird (www.pocruises.com.au/html/history.cfm).  It may be more accurate to say that the Wilhelm Gustloff was Europe ’s first “purpose-built” cruise ship. At the time, it was the largest and most advanced passenger ship ever built exclusively for cruises.  Many of today's modern cruise ships can trace design elements and functionality directly back to the Gustloff and its close sister ship Robert Ley.

• Contrary to some sources, the Gustloff DID NOT have Red Cross markings when torpedoed by the S-13 submarine commanded by Marinesko.  By late 1940, the Gustloff was repainted in typical navy grey when commissioned as a barracks ship in Gotenhafen.  Furthermore, anti-aircraft guns were affixed to the deck before sailing (there were those who felt that air attack was far more likely than submarine attack).

"An Eye For An Eye" by M.O. Cahill  ©2003

• Rumours have persisted that the “Amber Room” was loaded onto the Gustloff before it departed on its fateful voyage.  The Amber Room was a famous Russian treasure plundered by the Nazis in 1941 outside of Leningrad ( St. Petersburg ).  After its relocation to Königsberg (modern-day Kaliningrad), the Nazis packed it up in wooden crates when it became clear that the Eastern Front was collapsing.  One theory proposes that these crates were packed on the Gustloff before it left Gotenhafen on January 30, 1945.  Since its sinking, the wreck of the Gustloff has been disturbed (much of the mid-section destroyed) – fueling rumours that the Russians were looking for something, and later covered their tracks.

• In Kiel (the Gustloff’s original destination on the night it sank), Hitler’s newest U-boats were waiting for the 900 specially trained sailors on board the fated ship.  The U-boats were of the new ‘Type 21’ class and considered to be groundbreaking.  Many even feel they could have had a significant impact on the outcome of the war.  Once in Allied hands, these became the prototype for today’s modern submarines.  Similarly, the Soviets benefited from capture of German submarines in the East.

• In folklore, the captain is supposed to go down with his ship.  In the case of the Gustloff, all four of the quarrelsome captains were rescued.  In fact, men were rescued in embarrassingly large numbers – a statement author Günter Grass says speaks for itself.

• The submarine that sunk the Gustloff was, in fact, a German designed boat.  Designed in 1933, the Stalinets class boat was conceived by a German company set up in Holland to evade restrictive clauses of the Versailles Treaty.  Although it was built in 1939/40, the S-13 was borne out of illegal cooperation with the Russians prior to the war.

• Gustloff was the first NSDAP (Nazi) leader assassinated by a Jew.  Many feel that only timing kept him from being used even more as a tool for hysterical anti-semitism.  The Olympic Games were occurring during the summer in Berlin 1936.  In October 1938, a much smaller profile Nazi (Ernst vom Rath) was assassinated by Herschel Grynszpan in Paris .   The Nazis used his death as a significant motive to embark on a pogrom against the Jews – including Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) less than two weeks after the assassination.

• Captain Petersen (on the bridge the night of the disaster), served as captain of the Gustloff during its two extremes.  In 1938 on its first pleasure cruise to Madeira , he was put in charge of the Gustloff after Captain Lübbe died on the bridge of a heart attack.

• Most laypeople presume the funnel (i.e., “smokestack”) on a ship would serve only to vent heat/steam/smoke from the engine room.  In the Gustloff it contained the main water tank – providing plenty of potable water (3,400 metric tons) for each voyage.

• The date January 30^th provides eerie coincidences in the Gustloff story.  All of the following happened on a January 30th: Assassinated Nazi leader Wilhelm Gustloff was born in 1895.  Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933 - beginning the official reign of Nazism in Germany.  The organization responsible for masterminding the Wilhelm Gustloff - Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) was officially established in 1934.  In 1943, two events of significance occurred on January 30th.  First, in the generally accepted turning point of the war the 6th Army was defeated at Stalingrad.  Second, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Navy.  He would later order the evacuation of the Baltic - an operation that the Gustloff was participating in during its final voyage.  Finally, of course, the Gustloff was torpedoed and sunk on this date in 1945.

• The Gustloff is not the only lesser-known ship disaster.  During the same evacuation operation prompted by German Gross Admiral Dönitz, the Goya was torpedoed and sunk on April 16, 1945 .  With estimates of 6,000 to 7,000 lives lost, it is second only to the Gustloff in history.   Britain ’s worst maritime disaster of all time is the Lancastria (troopship sunk in June 1940 with up to 5,000 lives lost).   Over 4,000 lost their lives in 1987, when the Dona Paz collided with a tanker in the Philippines .  The greatest maritime disaster in United States history is the Sultana.  On April 27, 1865 , over 1,700 were killed when the steamship exploded.  Most of the victims were POW Union soldiers, returning home after the war had ended.

• Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the car that bears his name AND the famous Volkswagen Beetle (originally called the KdF-Wagen) participated as a guest during one of the Gustloff’s Italian cruises.
  
  
• William L. Shirer, noted American journalist and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, once participated in a Nazi Kraft durch Freude cruise prior to the outbreak of World War II.   As an influential reporter, he was personally invited by Robert Ley, head of German labour.  While it is not clear which one of the numerous ships used by the KdF he experienced, it may have very likely been the Wilhelm Gustloff or Robert Ley.

• There is an unusual link between the Titanic and the Wilhelm Gustloff.  In 1943, Hitler's propaganda minister Goebbels decided to commission a movie to be made about the Titanic.  It was filmed in Gotenhafen, using the Cap Arcona as stand-in for the Titanic.  Like the Gustloff,  the Cap Arcona was also serving as floating barracks to U-Boat personnel.  According to sources, many of the extras involved in the filming were not only from the Cap Arcona, but from the 2nd Submarine Training Division on the Wilhelm Gustloff.