Wilhelm Gustloff Museum Launched

Greetings to all,
I have just launched a new museum dedicated to the KdF liners Wilhelm Gustloff and Robert Ley. The site is located at www.wilhelmgustloffmuseum.com. Mfg.

 

welcome to the forum mswilhelmgustloff, nice website, from the brief look of what I saw..

 

Wow! Great info and pics. Especially I like pics.

Nice special info too. "On Robert Ley they had a different menu every day.." No wonder they felt a bit special on those cruises.

Thanx!

 

Interesting site, but the article on the sinking by Irwin Kappes has a number of major errors in it.
He claimes that the ship was carrying 1,200 wounded soldiers, in fact, the number of wounded soldiers was 162. The ship was also carrying, which the author doesn't mention, 918 officers, NCO's and men of the 2.Underseebot-Lehrdivision.
He also claims the ship was poorly maintained due to its years as a hospital ship, but the Gustloff hadn't been a hospital ship since late 1940, it was the years since then when she served as an accommodation ship for the U-boat arm of the German navy which effected her serviceability.

A better article on the Gustloff
http://www.feldgrau.com/articles.php?ID=64

 

there was at one time a special site just dedicated to the Wilhelm G. .de, in fact I posted this about 2 years ago on this very web-site. the total of over 9,000 humans is also up for discernment and nothing on the great author Heinz Schön whom has authored probably the classic books on the WG, other shipping sunk and lost and the rescuers in at least 6-7 works on the Baltic epics. either I am blind or he is not listed in the library-sources and or links ............ he should be.

 

this site supports the 9000 lives lost, erich..facts and fiction..
M.S. Wilhelm Gustloff - THE UNKNOWN DISASTER

but then these accounts vary dramatically... http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wi...ine_result&ct=title&resnum=16&ved=0CEYQ5wIwDw

 

that may no actually it is not the site I am thinking of but another good one Ray. things change though historical nature, not sure if the Germans are playing this up but I had heard from several German vets that were in the area one sailed by the are of the sinking that the totals were in the neighborhood of some 6,000. that figure stood for years ........... so ?

 

Thanks to all the replies. I am still working out all of the bugs on the site - including getting to the sinking article, which I have realized the errors - but have not addressed them yet. I focus more on the artifacts rather than information since there are other sites that have the information listed better than I could do. As far as the number which died during the sinking - "The current count for the casualities for the Wilhelm Gustloff came from the Discovery Channel's TV documentary Unsolved History: Wilhelm Gustloff World's Deadliest Sea Disaster. A computer simulation of how the passengers reacted was created based on known facts of the sinking and population densities around the stairwells and escape hatches on each deck. This computer generation can be viewed at: http://fseg.gre.ac.uk/EXODUS/gustloff.jpg. The end result was roughly 10,573 people onboard - 1,230 Survivors and 9,343 dead." If you see anything else out of place, feel free to let me know. I built that site in 2 weeks, so there are still areas that need to be revised.
I would like to know if many have had issues in the photograph page aborting for them? I have noticed with some computers - probably due to connection speed, they will stop loading. I have been debating to divide these pages up into 2 or 3 to lessen the loading times on them. Thanks for the feedback!

Eddie
www.wilhelmgustloffmuseum.com

 

I'm sorry Eddie but I just do not buy the amount of lost from the Discovery Channel, actually do not care for it historically. read so many other accounts even from eye witness's on the Ship that the count as I mentioned above which is still tragic.

 

I suppose it is each to their own thoughts on the actual number. Aside from the Discovery article, Jason Pipes of feldgrau.com also has this published:

"Newly published research by Heinz Schon has set the number of people on the Gustloff as follows: 8,956 refugees, 918 officers NCOs and men of the 2.Unterseeboot-Lehrdivision, 373 female naval auxiliary helpers, 173 naval armed forces auxiliaries, and 162 heavily wounded soldiers, for a total of 10,582 people on board on January 30th."

I believe you may have referenced this earlier. I would like to post as devils advocate however, that as far as the count of 6,000 standing for so long, I can only reference other disasters. For 73 years, eyewitnesses from the lifeboats said the Titanic sank in one piece until research (her discovery) proved otherwise, For decades, eyewitnesses said the Lusitania was hit by 2 torpedoes until research proved otherwise, and I would now add that for years, eyewitnesses said 6,000 were on the Gustloff until research proved otherwise. I am not sure how -through such a disaster- eyewitnesses could discern 6,000 from 10,000 when it took days to load the ship and not every passenger could be seen at one time. One thing I learned in college concerning history is that eyewitness accounts can be the most inaccurate accounts of all. Mfg.

 

give Heinz Schön a try by mail or at least look into his books think he could help you fill in numbers as I have mentioned earlier, with his materials your site will then cover all the bases sorry I would not trust Discovery channel as far as it could be thrown

 

I tried mailing Heinz once before, but I never got a reply. I would hope to get him to look over the site, but I am at a dead end. If you or anyone else knows how to contact, feel free to send him the site link. Thanks!

 

Very large update just completed and an additional large update to come this month. Also going to give facebook a try to keep posts on updates and information.

 

Nicely done I might add ;-))

Oh and, I got from Detlev Niemann, some 10 or so years ago, a Wilhelm Gustloff cap tally. Its been shortened quite a bit but the full name is intact. This tally is the full color one-not the black with gold lettering.

 

Learning the ins and outs of Facebook for the first time - Began a group and main page for new updates to the site. Also plan to begin construction on a new 1:100 scale model in greater detail than the last this summer / fall. All updates will be posted there.

Search: curator@wilhelmgustloffmuseum.com or Wilhelm Gustloff Museum if interested.

 

Fleeing from a brutal Soviet Red Army onslaught, the Wilhelm Gustloff is ready to leave port jammed with over 10,000 German refugees, naval personnel and wounded soldiers. The vessel is designed to hold a maximum of 1,880 passengers and crew. Of the refugees, a staggering four thousand are infants, children and youths on their way to promising safety in the West. Minus 18° Celsius (0° Fahrenheit) weather grips the Oxhöft Pier in Gotenhafen (Gdynia) on Tuesday the 30th day of January 1945.

For the first time in four years, the former flagship of Nazi pleasure cruising has started its engines. It's setting course for Kiel on mainland Germany - far away from the continued disintegration of the Eastern Front. Icebreakers busily work to carve a path through the Bayof Danzig to allow passage to the unforgiving winter waters of the Baltic Sea .


On the bridge, disagreement and tension isbudding. Two main senior officers command the ship. Both Friedrich Petersen, captain of the Gustloff and Lieutenant Commander Wilhelm Zahn, head of the U-boat division which has made its home on the ship for the last 4 years, cannot agree on an appropriate course. Adding to the complexity, two young captains from the merchant marine (Köhler and Weller) also add opinions from their places on the bridge.

Around 12:30PM German time, the Gustloffleaves port. Unlike its days of joyful peacetime cruising, there are no music bands, flag waving or cheerful send-offs. Instead, anxious hope for the very survival of family members and friends privileged enough to be aboard is evident. Envy and frustration from those who could not board filter through the dejected crowd left at the harbour.

Read More: http://www.wilhelmgustloff.com/sinking.htm


This is the last known photo of the
Gustloff, taken as it left port around
12:30PM on January 30, 1945.