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77-652: SS Cap Arcona , named after Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen , was a large German ocean liner , later a requisitioned auxiliary ship of the Kriegsmarine ( Nazi German War Navy), and finally a prison ship in the later months of World War II (1939–1945). A flagship of the Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft ("Hamburg-South America Line"), she made her maiden voyage on 29 October 1927, carrying passengers and cargo between Germany and

154-475: A Metal-halide lamp . This, combined with the rotating triple optics, emits 3 flashes every 17 seconds. The old naval navigation tower (German: Peilturm ) was built in 1927 of brick and acted as a marine navigation beacon . From 1911 to 1925, attempts were made - which were ground-breaking for that time - to improve navigation for the Sassnitz-Trelleborg railway ferry, established in 1909, using

231-622: A daymark erected near the present-day steps during the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743) in order to warn the population. Hence the spot was known as the Königssteig or "King's Climb". In 1833, for the arrival of the steamboat Hercules during its Imperial Russian chronometer expedition, the Prussian king, Frederick William III - Rügen was now Prussian - had a landing stage and flight of steps built. From this point in 1865,

308-458: A gyrocompass . Cap Arcona entered service in 1927, commencing her maiden voyage on Hamburg Süd's route to Buenos Aires 29 October. She joined the older liner Cap Polonio on the route, which had been Hamburg Süd's flagship until Cap Arcona ' s completion. Cap Polonio was laid up in 1931 and scrapped in 1935, leaving Cap Arcona as Hamburg Süd's sole prestige ship on its South American route. On 6 October 1932 Cap Arcona collided with

385-428: A Queen (1940), The Fox of Glenarvon (1940), Uncle Krüger (1941), and My Life for Ireland (1941). The epilogue at the end of the film unambiguously underscored the intent of the filmmakers: "Der Tod von 1500 Menschen blieb ungesühnt, eine ewige Anklage gegen Englands Gewinnsucht." ("The deaths of 1,500 people remain un-atoned, an eternal condemnation of England's endless quest for profit.") Undermining

462-565: A Slavic tribe, which was dedicated to their god Svantevit . Located at the tip of the cape, it was protected on three sides by cliffs and from the land side by a 25-metre-high burgwall . The temple located within the ramparts grew in importance as a religious centre for the Slavs of Mecklenburg after the destruction of Rethra in 1068. In 1168, the Danish king Valdemar I conquered Rügen which then became Christian . Churches were established and

539-516: A crisis meeting where he made unflattering comments about the Kriegsmarine officers who were supposed to be marine consultants for the film, but were more interested in molesting female cast members. Selpin's close friend and the co-writer of the script, Walter Zerlett-Olfenius , reported him to the Gestapo , and Selpin was promptly arrested and personally questioned by Joseph Goebbels , who

616-427: A full-size tennis court abaft her third funnel. The ship had at least 26 lifeboats , most of which were mounted in two tiers (see image). Cap Arcona had modern navigation and communication equipment. She was equipped for submarine signalling which allowed a ship to hear acoustic signals from aids to navigation. She also had wireless direction finding equipment, and from 1934 she had an echo sounding device and

693-509: A proclamation stating that anyone who shunned Zerlett-Olfenius, who had reported Selpin, would answer to him personally. The unfinished film, on which the production costs were spiralling wildly out of control, was in the end completed by an uncredited Werner Klingler . The film cost almost 4 million  ℛ︁ℳ︁ (equivalent to roughly US$ 15 million in 2020 terms), although various sources have erroneously propagated an inflation-adjusted figure as high as $ 180 million. Regardless, it

770-626: A series of photographs on the Volksmarine . Just outside Putgarten is a large car park where all visitors to the cape have to park their cars or tour buses. From there the cape may be accessed on foot (1.8 km), by horse and carriage or on the Cape Arkona road train ( Kap-Arkona-Bahn ). The various sights may also be visited by bicycle. Since 1993 the Cape Arkona Train has provided services from Putgarten to Cape Arkona and

847-567: A small plaque in the ground in front of the tower. The navigation tower is used as an art museum and studio. On each tower there is a viewing platform from which there are unobstructed views of Rügen and especially the peninsula of Wittow. In clear weather you can even see as far as the Danish island of Møn . From the 9th to the 12th centuries, the Jaromarsburg was a cult site for the Rani ,

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924-457: A staple of Titanic films . At a shareholder meeting, the president of the Line, White Star Line , J. Bruce Ismay ( E.F. Fürbringer ), reminds stockholders that the share price is falling, and that nothing can be done about it. This prompts many stockholders to sell their shares. Later, at a private meeting with members of the board, Ismay promises to reveal a secret during the maiden voyage of

1001-536: A year to build. South of the remnants of the ramparts at Jaromarsburg are the Veilchentreppe ("Violet Staircase"), a descent to the beach that runs from Arkona to Vitt. The name comes from the violets that grow around the staircase in spring. There are two bunkers in the immediate neighbourhood of the two lighthouses. The smaller, older bunker dates from Wehrmacht times and, in GDR days, housed an outpost of

1078-573: Is a 1943 German propaganda film made during World War II in Berlin by Tobis Productions for UFA , depicting the catastrophic sinking of RMS  Titanic in 1912. This was the third German language dramatization of the event, following a silent film released in 1912 just four months after the sinking and the British produced German film Atlantik released in 1929. The film was commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels with

1155-470: Is believed that important Nazis who have escaped from Berlin to Flensburg are onboard, and are fleeing to Norway or neutral countries". Equipped with lifejackets from locked storage compartments, most of the SS guards managed to jump overboard from S.S. Cap Arcona . German trawlers sent to rescue Cap Arcona ' s crew members and guards managed to save 16 sailors, 400 German SS men, and 20 SS women. Only 350 of

1232-584: Is not true. Approximately one kilometre to the north-west, there is a point on the steep coast , known as the Gellort , which is a little further north. Directly at the foot of the Gellort is a 165-ton glacial erratic boulder known as the Siebenschneiderstein ( Low German : Söbenschniedersteen ). The cape offers a view of the island, both from land or sea. The smaller of the two lighthouses

1309-535: Is typical of the North Vorpommern coast. The average annual temperature is 8.9 °C (48.0 °F). Precipitation amounts to 547.8 mm (21.57 in) per year. Because of its proximity to the sea, its humidity is very high. The Cape Arkona weather station has recorded the following extreme values: On 26 December 2011, there was a major rock slide at Cape Arkona, which buried a ten-year-old girl and seriously injured her mother. A weeklong search for

1386-572: The Volksmarine ("People's Navy") were on duty here for two to three days, three to four times a year, as part of naval exercises. The standard complement was four men. On 3 October 1990, the day of German reunification , the site was closed. The bunkers were purchased and successively renovated by the municipality of Putgarten. The Arkona Bunker now houses an art gallery and the NVA Bunker an exhibition of GDR fittings and equipment as well as

1463-603: The 2nd Tactical Air Force . Through secret code-breaking of Ultra Intelligence, the Western Allies had become aware that most of the Nazi German SS leadership and former concentration camp commandants had gathered with Heinrich Himmler in Flensburg , hoping to contrive an escape northward to remaining German-occupied Norway . The western allies had intercepted orders from Hitler's designated successor with

1540-781: The 6th (Coastal) Border Brigade . It is generally called the Arkona Bunker . The larger, newer bunker was built from 1979 to 1986 and acted as a command post for the Sixth Flotilla , stationed on Bug , and the Baltic Fleet (VOF). Starting from a main central tunnel with two entrances, there are several autonomous individual bunkers with a total area of 2,000 square metres. They comprise three large bunkers (type FB-75) and nine small ones (type FB-3), made of prefabricated concrete elements (FB = prefabricated bunker). The FB-75 type bunker had an intermediate floor level, where

1617-590: The Deutschland had previously been intended as a hospital ship, and retained one white painted funnel with a red cross), and all prisoners were concealed below deck, so the pilots in the attacking force were unaware that they were laden with concentration camp survivors. Although Swedish and Swiss Red Cross officials had informed British intelligence on 2 May 1945 of the presence of large numbers of prisoners on ships at anchor in Lübeck Bay, this vital information

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1694-542: The unconditional surrender of the German troops in northwestern Germany at Lüneburg Heath to British Army commander Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery (1887–1976), S.S. Cap Arcona , S.S. Thielbek , and the passenger liner S.S. Deutschland were attacked as part of general strikes on shipping in the Baltic Sea by Royal Air Force (R.A.F.) Hawker Typhoon fighter warplanes of No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group of

1771-427: The 5,000 former concentration camp inmates aboard Cap Arcona survived. From 2,800 prisoners on board the S.S. Thielbek only 50 were saved; whereas all 2,000 prisoners on the S.S. Deutschland were safely taken off onto the S.S. Athen , before the Deutschland capsized. R.A.F. Pilot Allan Wyse of No. 193 Squadron recalled, "We used our cannon fire at the chaps in the water... we shot them up with 20 mm cannons in

1848-648: The Baltic Sea. Titanic endured many production difficulties, including a clash of egos, massive creative differences and general war-time frustrations. As filming progressed, more extravagant sets were demanded by Selpin, as well as additional resources from the German Navy – these demands were all approved by Goebbels, despite the mounting costs and the drain on the wartime German economy. After one week of troubled shooting on Cap Arcona , with Allies bombing raids occurring not far away, Herbert Selpin called

1925-674: The French cargo ship Agen in the North Sea off the Elbe 4 Lightship . Agen was beached, but later was refloated and escorted into Hamburg , Germany. In 1940 the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) requisitioned Cap Arcona , had her painted overall grey and used her in the Baltic Sea as an accommodation ship in Gotenhafen (now Gdynia ). In 1942 Cap Arcona was used as a stand-in for RMS  Titanic , supplying exterior locations for

2002-541: The German Baltic Sea coast after the Travemünde Lighthouse . The largest tower was built in 1901/02 right next to the old tower and entered service on 1 April 1905. It is 35 metres high and has a focal height of 75 m above NN . It is made of brick and stands on an octagonal granite base. For 90 years its light source was two arc lamps , but they were replaced in 1995 by

2079-446: The German citizenry's morale instead of improving it, as heavy Allied bombing raids made a film depicting mass panic and death unappealing. Goebbels later banned the playing of the film entirely, and it did not have a second run. The film was the first on the subject which was simply titled Titanic , and the first to combine various fictional characters and subplots with the true events of the sinking ; both conventions went on to become

2156-474: The German people – who were at that point going through almost nightly Allied bombing raids – were less than enthusiastic about seeing a film that portrayed mass death and panic. The Nazi leadership was also displeased with the manner in which the fictional character Petersen critiqued his superiors, which they regarded to be at odds with the Führerprinzip , which demanded Germans unquestioningly obey

2233-614: The Hamburg War Crimes Trial that he believed the ships were to be sunk by Kriegsmarine submarine U-boats or Luftwaffe aircraft. Eva Neurath, who was present in Neustadt, and whose husband survived the disaster, said she was told by a police officer that the ships held convicts and were going to be blown up. On 2 May 1945, the British Second Army discovered the empty camp at Neuengamme, and reached

2310-578: The Kriegsmarine reactivated her for Operation Hannibal , where she was used to transport 25,795 German soldiers and civilians from East Prussia to safer areas in western Germany. By then these trips were made very dangerous by mines and Soviet Navy submarines. On 30 January Wilhelm Gustloff , carrying around 10,000 passengers and crew, was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine  S-13 and sank in 40 minutes. An estimated 9,400 people died. Early on

2387-505: The Line's new RMS  Titanic that will change that. He encourages the board to sell their shares so that they can buy it back cheaply when his secret is revealed and the share prices increase again. Later, on the Titanic, it is revealed that he believes that when the ship breaks the speed record, this will raise the stock's value. When Ismay reveals his secret at the opening dinner, the board realizes what he had in mind, and rushes off to

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2464-581: The Neuengamme camp was systematically emptied of all its remaining prisoners, together with other groups of concentration camp inmates and Soviet P.O.W.s; with the intention that they would be relocated to a secret new camp, either on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn ; or at Mysen in German-occupied Norway where preparations were put in hand to house them under the control of concentration camp guards evacuated from Sachsenhausen . In

2541-596: The P-51) of the Allied United States Army Air Forces (USAAF)'s 18th / 161st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron around 1700 hrs, shortly after the attack. On 4 May 1945, a British reconnaissance plane also took photos of the two wrecks, Thielbek and Cap Arcona , With the Bay of Neustadt being shallow. The capsized hulk of Cap Arcona later drifted ashore, and the remains of the beached wreck

2618-664: The Red Cross informed Major-General Roberts that 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners were aboard ships off-shore in the Bay of Lübeck. In the afternoon of 3 May 1945, the British 5th reconnaissance regiment advanced northwards to Neustadt, witnessing the ships burning off-shore in the bay and rescuing some severely emaciated prisoners on the beach at Neustadt, but otherwise finding mostly the bodies of women and children who had died that morning. On 3 May 1945, three days after Nazi German dictator Hitler's suicide in Berlin , and only one day before

2695-522: The advance of the Red Army . Cap Arcona ' s final use was as a prison ship. In May 1945 she was heavily laden with prisoners from Nazi concentration camps when the Royal Air Force bombed her in the western Baltic Sea, killing about 5,000 people; with more than 2,000 further casualties in the sinkings of the accompanying vessels of the prison fleet, Deutschland and Thielbek . This

2772-469: The anchored vessels; although, as the Cap Arcona refused to accept any more prisoners, over eight hundred were returned to the beach at Neustadt in the morning of 3 May, where around five hundred were killed in their barges by machine-gunning, or beaten to death on the beach, their German SS guards then seeking to make their escape unencumbered by "excess baggage". The order to transfer the prisoners to

2849-460: The cape there are two lighthouses , a navigation tower, two military bunker complexes, the Slavic temple fortress of Jaromarsburg and several tourist buildings (restaurants, pubs and souvenir shops). Because of its geology and the weathering that occurs here, there are frequent coastal collapses, especially in winter. Cape Arkona is often referred to as "the northernmost point of Rügen", which

2926-501: The case of the Neuengamme concentration camp) all evidence for the prisoners' former presence within the city and its industries. By early May however, any relocation plans had been scotched by the rapid British military advance to the Baltic; so the SS leadership, which had moved to Flensburg on 28 April, discussed scuttling the ships with the prisoners still captive aboard. Later, at a war crimes tribunal, Gauleiter Kaufmann claimed that

3003-482: The castle and its temple destroyed. At the tip of Arkona in recent centuries, the cliffs have repeatedly collapsed into the sea, with the result that only the ramparts of the Jaromarsburg are still visible today. Several metres west of Cape Arkona is the Königstreppe ("King's Staircase"), whose 230 steps climb up the 42-metre-high cliff 230. The Swedish king, Frederick I – Rügen then belonged to Sweden – had

3080-499: The child was given up on 8 January 2012 and it was not until 31 January 2012 that the child's body was found at the foot of the cliff. The following ships have been named after Cape Arkona: An offshore wind farm called Arkona is in development 35 km north-east of the point, designed with 60 Siemens Wind Power 6 MW gearless turbines. 54°40′35″N 13°26′16″E  /  54.67639°N 13.43778°E  / 54.67639; 13.43778 Titanic (1943 film) Titanic

3157-500: The coastal towns of Lübeck and Wismar . No. 6 Commando , 1st Special Service Brigade commanded by Brigadier Derek Mills-Roberts , and the 11th Armoured Division , commanded by Major-General Philip Roberts , entered Lübeck without resistance. Lübeck contained a permanent International Red Cross and Red Crescent offices in its function as a Red Cross port , and Mr. De Blonay of the International Committee of

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3234-578: The east coast of South America, and for a brief period of time she was the largest and fastest ship on the route, until one month later she was surpassed on the same Europe-South America route by the Italian liner MS  Augustus . In 1940, the Kriegsmarine ( Nazi German War Navy) requisitioned the S.S. Cap Arcona as an accommodation ship . In 1942 she served as the set for the German propaganda feature film Titanic . In 1945 she evacuated almost 26,000 German civilian refugees from East Prussia before

3311-415: The emission of radio waves. The foundations of the associated radio operating facility inside the ramparts have survived to this day. The technical facilities of the navigation tower were destroyed, however, in 1945 All three towers were renovated in the early 1990s and are open to visitors. In the old lighthouse, there is now a museum and a branch of the registry office. Marriages may be commemorated here on

3388-492: The filming of the Nazi film version of the disaster in the harbour of Gotenhafen . The production was completed, although the first director, Herbert Selpin , was arrested for disparaging remarks he made about Kriegsmarine sailors. His later self-destructive interrogation at the hands of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels all but sealed his fate. He was found the next day hanged in his cell by his suspenders. On 31 January 1945,

3465-693: The finished film. After the Propaganda Ministry gave final script approval in March 1942, shooting of interior scenes began shortly thereafter at Tobis Film 's Johannisthal Studios in Berlin. Beginning in May, 1942, exterior scenes were shot at the German-occupied Polish Baltic Sea port of Gdynia (renamed Gotenhafen ), on board SS  Cap Arcona , a passenger liner that eventually shared Titanic ' s fate; it

3542-402: The first telegraph cable was laid under the Baltic Sea to Sweden. With the rise of the island's coastal resorts, tourism at Cape Arkona grew. Many travelers came by excursion boats that moored at the pier at the foot of the steps. The landing stage was, however, completely destroyed by the storm flood of 1953. The new Königstreppe steps were completed in 1995 at the same historic spot, taking

3619-505: The fishing village of Vitt. It does not run on rails as the name suggests, but is a road train that runs on wheels on normal roads. The train is hauled by a tractor designed to look like a steam locomotive but since 1996 has actually been powered by a more environmentally-friendly gas engine . Ships operated by the Reederei Ostsee-Tour also run daily from Binz and Sassnitz to Cape Arkona. The climate at Cape Arkona

3696-433: The freighter Thielbek , and the motor launch Athen  [ de ] . Since the steering motors were out of use in the S.S. Thielbek and the turbines were out of use on the S.S. Cap Arcona , so then the smaller S.S. Athen was used to transfer prisoners from Lübeck to the larger vessels and in between ships; they were locked below decks and in the holds, and denied food and medical attention. On 30 April 1945

3773-486: The intended effect were the scenes of British and French passengers in a state of panic and desperation. Scenes of steerage passengers separated by crew members and desperately searching for their loved ones through locked gates and a chain link fence bore an uncanny resemblance to what was happening in German extermination camps during that time. This contributed to the film being banned by Goebbels inside Germany. Titanic

3850-450: The intent of showing not only the superiority of German filmmaking, but also as a propaganda vehicle which would depict British and American capitalism as being responsible for the disaster. The addition of an entirely fictional heroic German officer, Petersen, to the ship's crew was intended to demonstrate the superior bravery and selflessness of German men as compared to the British officers. The film's original director, Herbert Selpin ,

3927-526: The interim, they were to be concealed from the advancing British and Canadian military forces from liberated Netherlands , along the North Sea coast, across northern Germany towards Denmark and the Baltic; and for this purpose the SS assembled a prison flotilla of decommissioned ships in the Bay of Lübeck , consisting of the requisitioned former civilian passenger ocean liners S.S. Cap Arcona and Deutschland ,

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4004-413: The last lifeboats. He then arranges a seat for Ismay in order for him to stand trial for causing the disaster. As the water ravages through the ship, Petersen finds a young girl who was abandoned in her cabin by her parents. Petersen jumps into the water with the girl in his arms and is pulled aboard Sigrid's lifeboat, where the two are reunited. The occupants then watch in horror as Titanic plunges beneath

4081-455: The meantime, the telegraph officer reveals to Astor's assistant (Hopkins) that Ismay had been very eager to learn what the stock prices were, and this makes Astor realize that Ismay had tried. He decides to set a plan of his own in motion to drive the stock price even lower once they reach New York, in order to obtain a larger share of the Line. First Officer Petersen ( Hans Nielsen ), the sole German crew member on board, pleads with Ismay to slow

4158-716: The morning of 11 February, the same submarine torpedoed the 14,666  GRT General von Steuben on its way to Copenhagen with wounded and bed-ridden soldiers and civilian passengers, killing over 4,000 people. On 20 February, Cap Arcona ' s captain, Johannes Gertz, shot himself in his cabin while berthed in Copenhagen rather than face another trip back to Gotenhafen. On 30 March 1945, Cap Arcona finished her third and last trip between Gdynia and Copenhagen, carrying 9,000 soldiers and refugees. However, her turbines were completely worn out. They could only be partially repaired and her days of long-distance travel were over. She

4235-610: The orders of their superiors. It was approved by the West German Board of Voluntary Film Censorship  [ de ] (FSK), but banned after British objections to the film. The FSK approved the film for release in the American occupation zone on 19 December 1949, and the entirety of West Germany on 21 March 1950. The British requested the Allied High Commission to have the film banned, but this

4312-475: The picture book Soldaten des Volkes ("Soldiers of the People"). The bunkers were uncamouflaged. How the photograph was allowed to appear in this book is not clear, but it was withdrawn from circulation again just three days after its publication. A later edition of the illustrated book was published with the aerial image omitted. Today, the original picture book is a collector's piece. From 1986, 50–70 soldiers of

4389-564: The prison ships had come from Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann in Hamburg. Marc Buggeln has challenged Kaufmann's subsequent claim that he had been acting on orders from SS Headquarters in Berlin , arguing that the decision in fact resulted from political and business pressures from leading industrialists in Hamburg, who were already at this stage plotting with Kaufmann to hand the city over to approaching British forces undefended and unharmed, and who consequently wished to whitewash away (literally so in

4466-464: The prisoners were intended to be sent to Sweden, although, as none of the ships carried any exterior Red Cross hospital ship markings , nor were they even seaworthy, this was scarcely credible. Georg-Henning Graf von Bassewitz-Behr , Hamburg's last Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF), testified at the same trial that the prisoners were in fact to be killed "in compliance with Himmler's orders". Kurt Rickert, who had worked for Bassewitz-Behr, testified at

4543-453: The revealing Holocaust. The British R.A.F. military aircraft were from the units of No. 184 Squadron , No. 193 Squadron , No. 263 Squadron , No. 197 Squadron RAF , and No. 198 Squadron . Besides four 20 mm cannon , these Hawker Typhoon Mark 1B fighter-bombers carried either eight HE "60-lb" RP-3 unguided rockets or two 500 lb (230 kg) bombs. None of the prison flotilla were painted / marked with Red Cross symbols (although

4620-509: The rump Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz government, also at Flensburg , that the SS leadership were to be facilitated in escaping Allied capture – or otherwise issued with false Kriegsmarine naval uniforms to conceal their identities – as Admiral Dönitz sought, while surrendering, to maintain the fiction that his administration had been free from involvement in the concentration camps, or in Hitler's policies of genocide and

4697-782: The ship while sailing through ice-infested North Atlantic waters. Ismay refuses and orders Captain Smith ( Otto Wernicke ) to keep up the vessel's record-breaking speed. An iceberg is sighted, but the search light's filaments break and there are no spare filaments on board. Shortly thereafter, Titanic hits the iceberg and begins to sink. The passengers in First Class act like cowards, while Petersen, his Russian aristocrat ex-lover Sigrid Olinsky ( Sybille Schmitz ), and several German passengers in steerage behave bravely and with dignity. With Sigrid's assistance, Petersen manages to rescue many passengers before convincing her to board one of

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4774-478: The sleeping areas were located, and an emergency exit. Each individual shelter has a main corridor and two airlocks . Over the top is a 3-to-5-metre-high (9.8 to 16.4 ft) earth covering, from which protrude dozens of ventilation tubes. In 1985, on the 30th anniversary of the National People's Army (NVA) , an aerial photograph of Cape Arkona, with the bunker complex in the background, was publicised in

4851-473: The telegraph office to buy shares. The next morning, the news is not good: Ismay's gamble did not pay off, and the share price is still dropping. He tries to calm the board by saying that the share prices are bound to go up once the Titanic wins the Blue Riband , and tells them that he suspects foul play. Ismay reveals to his fiancé that he had shorted the stock by borrowing millions of pounds privately. In

4928-537: The two Swedish ships Magdalena and Lillie Matthiessen , previously employed as support vessels for the White Bus evacuations, made a final rescue trip to the Bay of Lübeck and back. Amongst the prisoners rescued were some transferred from the prison flotilla. On the evening of 2 May 1945 more prisoners, mainly women and children from the Stutthof and Mittelbau-Dora camps were loaded onto barges and brought out to

5005-472: The water. Horrible thing, but we were told to do it and we did it. That's war." Severely damaged and set on fire, the Cap Arcona eventually capsized. Photos of the burning ships, listed as Deutschland , Thielbek , and Cap Arcona , and of the emaciated prisoner survivors swimming in the very cold Baltic Sea waters, around 7 °C (45 °F), were taken on a reconnaissance mission over the Bay of Lübeck by F-6 Mustang (the photo- reconnaissance version of

5082-601: The waves. At the British Inquiry into the disaster , Petersen testifies against Ismay, condemning his actions, but Ismay is cleared of all charges and the blame is placed squarely on the deceased Captain Smith's shoulders. An epilogue states (in German): "The deaths of 1,500 people remained unpunished, an eternal condemnation of England's profiteering." The script was adapted from a popular German novel by Josef Pelz von Felinau , although he remained uncredited in

5159-521: Was arrested during production after making disparaging comments about the German army and the war in the east. He was found hanged in prison, and the film was completed by Werner Klingler , who was not credited. Although the film had a brief theatrical run in parts of German-occupied Europe starting in November 1943, it was not shown within Germany by order of Goebbels, who feared that it would weaken

5236-483: Was built of brick in 1826/27 based on plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and taken into service in 1828. It is 19.3 metres high and has a focal height of 60 m above  sea level (NN) . The rooms of the three-storey tower are used as operating and storage rooms. It is also called the Schinkelturm ("Schinkel Tower"). On 31 March 1905 it was taken out of service. It is the second oldest lighthouse on

5313-956: Was decommissioned, returned to her owners Hamburg-Süd and ordered out of Copenhagen Harbour to Neustadt Bay. During March and April 1945, concentration camp prisoners from Scandinavian countries had been transported from all over the German Reich to the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg, in the White Bus programme coordinated through the Swedish Red Cross  – with prisoners of other nationalities displaced to make room for them. Eventually Heinrich Himmler agreed that these Scandinavians, and selected others regarded as less harmful to Germany, could be transported through German-occupied Denmark , north to freedom in neutral Sweden . Then between 16 and 28 April 1945,

5390-794: Was finally broken up and scrapped four years later in 1949. For weeks after the attack, bodies of victims washed ashore, where they were collected and buried in mass graves at Neustadt in Holstein , Scharbeutz and Timmendorfer Strand . Parts of skeletons washed ashore occasionally over the next 30 years, with the last casualty find occurring in 1971. The prisoners aboard the ships were of at least 30 different nationalities: American, Belarrussian, Belgian, Canadian, Czechoslovakian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourger, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss, Ukrainian, and possibly others. Cape Arkona On

5467-417: Was ignored and Britain's Deputy High Commissioner believed that it did not threaten the United Kingdom's security or prestige. On 29 March, it was banned in the British occupation zone after domestic British controversy about the film's rerelease. Süd Verleih, the film's distributor, argued that its version, which was cut down from 2700 metres to 2339 metres, was not prejudicial to the prestige and security of

5544-413: Was not passed on. The R.A.F. commanders ordering the strike believed that a flotilla of ships was being prepared in Lübeck Bay, to accommodate leading SS personnel fleeing to German-controlled Norway in accordance with Admiral Dönitz's orders. "The ships are gathering in the area of Lübeck and Kiel. At S.H.A.E.F. (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, commanded by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ), it

5621-578: Was one of the largest single-incident maritime losses of life in the Second World War . Blohm+Voss in Hamburg built Cap Arcona , launching and completing her in 1927. She was 27,561  GRT , 205.90 m (675 ft 6 in) overall and a beam of 25.78 m (84 ft 7 in). She was driven by eight steam turbines , single-reduction geared to two propeller shafts. She had three funnels, and her passenger comforts included

5698-508: Was sunk a few days before the end of World War II by the Royal Air Force on May 3, 1945, with loss of life more than three times than that on the actual Titanic . The ship had been turned into a prison ship and filled with inmates that, according to one hypothesis, the Nazis had put there in hopes that the ship would be destroyed by the Allies. The scenes with the lifeboats were also filmed on

5775-619: Was the driving force behind the Titanic project. Selpin, however, did not retract his statement – infuriating Goebbels, since the Propaganda Minister had personally chosen Selpin to direct his propaganda epic. Within 24 hours of his arrest, Selpin was found hanged in his jail cell, which was ruled a suicide. It has been claimed that Selpin was killed on Goebbels' orders. The cast and crew were angered by Selpin's death and attempted to retaliate, but Goebbels countered them by issuing

5852-414: Was the most expensive German production to that point. The faults of capitalism and the stock market play a dominant role throughout the film. Titanic makes the allegory of the liner's loss specifically about British "avarice" rather than, as most retellings do, about " hubris ". This fits in with other works of anti-British propaganda of the time such as The Maiden Joanna (1935), The Heart of

5929-488: Was to premiere in early 1943, but the theatre that housed the answer print was bombed by Royal Air Force planes the night before. The film went on to have a respectable premiere in Paris in November 1943 "where it was surprisingly well-received by its audience", and also played well in some other capital cities of Nazi-occupied Europe such as Prague . However, Goebbels banned its playing in Germany altogether, stating that

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