The Baltic provinces as a whole extended as a 'balcony'
along the coast, and they were segmented into progressively smaller fragments
whenever Russian columns drove north. Long before it was clear that escape by
sea remained the only resort for the majority of the Germans of the Baltic
lands.
The ordeal of the civilians almost invariably began with a
flight across the frozen countryside. In northernmost East Prussia the people
instinctively made for the temporary refuge of Konigsberg, or the Samland
peninsula beyond, which contained the hideously crowded camp at Peyse and the
little port of Pillau. In West Prussia and East Pomerania the civilians were
drawn to the major ports of Danzig and Gotenhafen, where the facilities for
shipment were much greater.
In between, another 450,000 civilians were cut off in the
area of the Heiligenbeil Cauldron and were forced to flee across the frozen
Frisches Haff to the Nehrung sandspit or Pillau. The ice held until the end of
February, and the Wehrmacht marked the passages to Pillau, Narmeln and
Strauchbucht with poles and lamps, but the crossing remained a dangerous and
harrowing business. One of the women recalls how
the ice was breaking
up, and in places we had to make our way through water twenty-five centimetres
deep. We constantly sounded the depth of the water in front of us with sticks,
and the innumerable bomb holes compelled us to make detours. Frequently, we
slipped and gave ourselves up for lost. Our clothing was wet through and
through, and we could move only with difficulty. . . . Household effects were strewn
all over the ice. Wounded men dragged themselves towards us on sticks,
gesturing for help, and their comrades drew them the rest of the way on little
sledges. (Gaunitz, 1987, 51)
The Kriegsmarine pressed all available naval and merchant
shipping into service to take the refugees, combatants and wounded from the
principal ports of Libau (Kurland), Memel, Pillau and the Nehrung (East
Prussia), Danzig, Gotenhafen, Oxhoft and Hela (the Gau of Danzig-West Prussia)
and Stolpmiinde, Riigenwaldermunde, Kolberg, Swinemiinde, Stettin, Stralsund
and Sassnitz (East and West Pomerania).
The total of civilians and troops saved by the Kriegsmarine came
to more than 2 million. Some of the ships made directly for the safety of
German-held Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein, but most of them acted as ferries,
carrying their human cargo to intermediate ports for later transhipment. Little
Hela was the main collection point for the troops and refugees in the Bight of
Danzig, and 387,000 souls were shipped from there in the course of April alone.
Likewise the Pomeranian ports received 851,735 soldiers and civilians from 15
January to 10 May, and forwarded 340,710 over the same period. The business was
managed by the two relevant commands of the Kriegsmarine:
• Admiral of the East Baltic (Burchardi) who commanded the
waters of Kurland, East Prussia and the Bight of Danzig.
• Admiral of the West Baltic (Lange, then from 31 March
Schubert), responsible for Pomerania and the Baltic further west.
Considering the numbers involved, the losses to enemy action
were very low, but a place on board ship was no absolute guarantee of safety.
There was little danger from the surface craft of the Red Banner Fleet, which
were deterred by the German minefields and the German superiority in destroyers,
cruisers and battleships. However, the large German passenger ships and
freighters were vulnerable, for their bulk made them easy marks for Soviet
aircraft and submarines, and adequate escorts could not always be provided.
Interpretation of the Gustloff's final moments by Irwin J. Kappes
On 30 January 1945 the Wilhelm Gustloff left Gotenhafen with
5,000 of the refugees who had been waiting in snowstorms on the quays. Shortly
after 2100, when the ship was twenty-five nautical miles off shore, she was
shaken by a dull blow. Second and third blows announced hits by two more
torpedoes, and the vessel listed to port. The crew lost control of the crazed
passengers, and only a few of the lifeboats made good their escape before the
interior partitions of the lower decks broke and the ship plunged to the
bottom. There were 937 survivors.
The reports of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff terrified
the refugees still stranded on the Baltic shores, and there were yet further
horrors in store. The white-painted hospital ship General von Steuben was
torpedoed on the way from Pillau on 11-12 February. The vessel swam for only
twenty minutes, and although 630 of the refugees and crew were taken off, there
was nothing to be done for the 2,680 military wounded, all of whom drowned.
The greatest single loss of life in maritime history was
sustained in the sinking of the Goya, which steamed from Hela with every space,
including the companion-ways, jammed full. The Goya was a fast, modern
freighter, but she was torn apart by two torpedoes shortly after midnight on 16
April. A battle for personal survival broke out inside the ship, and for
possession of the life rafts, where the first-comers defended their places with
blows and kicks. Only 165 individuals were saved by the escorts and the light
craft, leaving about 7,000 refugees and soldiers to the Baltic on that cold
night.
