Exploring the worst loss of life in maritime history

Michela Cocolin, co-author of the recently published book Hitler's Lost State, will talk about the book in a special session which comes as part of Explorations, a series of talks at the Regis School of Music.
By Phil Hewitt
Published 6th Apr 2022, 08:05 BST
Hitler's Lost StateHitler's Lost State
Hitler's Lost State

The talk is on Thursday, April 7 at 10.30am at the Regis School of Music, 46 Sudley Road, Bognor Regis PO21 1ER. More information on 01243 866462. Everyone is welcome. Admission free.

Michela, a long-standing and active supporter of the school, said: “Seen as an agricultural utopia within Hitler's Germany, it is often the view that both East and West Prussia had remained relatively untouched during the Second World War.

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“Yet the violence, prejudice and murder associated with the National Socialist regime that brought most of Europe to ruin were widespread throughout Prussia during its brief existence.

“When the MV Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by a Russian submarine just after 9pm on 30 January 1945, 9,343 passengers – 5,000 of them children – would perish. It was the worst loss of life in maritime history, six times greater than the one of the RMS Titanic.

“Launched by Adolf Hitler on 5 May 1937 and the KdF (Kraft durch Freude = Strength through Joy) as a recreational and propaganda tool, the MV Wilhelm Gustloffwould suffer the same fate as the nation it once represented.

“Yet 75 years later, her tragic story is still unknown to many. Combining existing material and new findings, this book tells the story of Prussia's rise and fall as a military power, the attempts by brave civilians as well as military personnel determined to overturn the evil regime they had made an oath to serve and the desperate evacuation of refugees to the West in one of the greatest exodus ever seen, told by those who were there.”

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