location of passengers and survival, 55, 58, 117, 129, 134–8, 141, 144–5
and lack of escort force, 127–8, 173
and navigation lights, 126
and officers, 136–7, 141, 144–5, 147–9
and panic, 132–49, 151–4
and route, 124–8, 131–2, 172–4
and SOS call, 135
and suicide, 139
and torpedo hits, 131–40, 142, 147, 156–7, 163, 170, 172, 187, 198–9
and watertight doors, 136
“6,000 Victims” (Battle Cry) (article), 179
Skaubryn, 195–6
Slavs, 24
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander, 39
Soviet Baltic Fleet, See Russian Baltic Fleet
Soviet gulag, See gulag
Soviet Navy, 50, 89–93, 96, 98, 101–12, 175, 180, 189, 213n21
Soviet occupation zone, 184, 189
Soviet Red Army, See Red Army (Soviet)
Soviet secret police, See NKVD
Soviet submarines, 51, 62, 87, 89–98, 101–13, 125–9, 170–3, 188–9
Soviet tanks, 8, 10, 43
Spandau Prison (1956), 47–8
Spanish Civil War, 58
Spanner, Rudolf, 29
SS, See Schutzstaffel
Stalag Luft III, 41
Stalin, Josef, 19, 22, 27, 37–40, 44, 87, 89, 98, 105, 132, 180, 184
Stalinet (S-class submarines), 93, 95
Steinhardt, Laurence, 22–3, 107–8
Stettin, 24
Stolpe Bank, 96–7, 131, 151, 172, 198
Strasse, Litzman, 78
“Strength Through Joy” campaign, 53–5
See Kraft durch Freude
Stutthof concentration camp, 28–30, 35, 43, 68, 82–3, 171–2, 180, 203, 207n17
evacuation of, 83–4
and political prisoners, 28–9
rendering human fat, 29–30
See Konzentrationslager concentration camp
subcamps, 29–30, 35, 68
submarines, 51, 62, 87–98, 101–13, 125–9, 156, 165, 169, 170–3, 188–9
suicide, 39–40, 45, 139, 148
Summer Olympics, 52
survivor’s guilt, 179–81, 182–7, 192–3, 201
Sweden, 45, 58, 108, 199
Sydney Morning Herald, 57
T.S. Murwik, 15, 198
T–36, 152–5, 160–3, 165–6, 174, 200
Tallinn, 91, 105–6
Tartars, 91
Tehran conference, 184
Ten Years and Twenty Days (Dönitz), 48
Teutonic knights, 68
TF–1, 127–8
Third Belorussian Front, 44
Third Reich, 5–6, 10, 12–14, 16–17, 21, 23–5, 27–31, 33, 40, 43, 47–8, 50–5, 57, 59, 61, 65, 72, 76, 90, 102–3, 106, 171, 180, 184, 189
Third White Russian Front, 43
Thorn, 29, 203
Tilbury Docks, 57
Titanic (RMS), 1–2, 56, 169, 175, 194, 196
Togo, 114, 151
top deck (Wilhelm Gustloff), 122, 137–8
torpedo boat, 15, 79–80, 101, 127, 152–3, 157, 165
torpedoes, 1, 20, 89–90, 93–9, 125, 131–40, 142, 146–9, 151, 156–7, 163, 166–7, 170–2, 176, 187, 198–9
Treaty of Non-Aggression, 22, 37
See Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
Tributs, V. F., 89
Truman, Harry S., 184
Tschinkur, Bill, 185
Tschinkur, Dorit, 81
Tschinkur, Ellen, See Ellen Tschinkur Maybee
Tschinkur, Heiner, 185–6
Tschinkur, Herbert Christoph, 17–18, 24, 34, 64, 185, 192
Tschinkur, Irene, See Irene Tschinkur East
Tschinkur, Serafima Ivanova Karsubova, 17–18, 24, 81–2, 120, 123–4, 133, 143–4, 160, 162, 166–8, 185–6, 227
Tschinkur family, 17–18, 23– 5, 30, 34, 42, 81–2, 167, 184, 192
Tukhachevsky, M. N., 89
Turkey, 29
Twenty-second Submarine Training Flotilla, 60–1
TZ–36, 194
U-boats (German), 8, 11–12, 15, 35, 48–9, 59–60, 77, 90, 102–7, 110–11, 114, 116, 118–19, 124–7, 173, 178, 212n10
U–30, 103
U–68, 102
U–351, 61
Ukraine, 23–4, 27, 29, 43–4, 88, 91–2
US Office for Strategic Services, 45
US public opinion, 23
US WWII narrative, 181
V-E Day (1945), 181
V-J Day (1945), 181
Versailles Treaty (1919), 102
visas, 183–4, 191–2
Vistula–Oder Offensive (1945), 43–5
Vitebsk, 38
Vladivostok, 188
volksdeutsch, 33
Volkssturm (Home Guard), 31, 42, 73–4, 120, 185
Vollrath, Anna, 197
Vollrath, Gerard, 197
Vollrath, Paul, 59–61, 115, 118, 121–2, 127, 130, 139, 147–9, 151, 155–8, 196–7
Vollrath, Vera, 197
VP–1703, 159
Walloch, Ruth, 75, 122, 144–5, 153
walross (walrus), 108
Waterford Times, 196
Wehrmacht (German army), 5, 14, 31, 37–44, 64–8, 72, 75, 102, 106, 109–10, 177
atrocities, 39–41, 44
and “will,” 43
See Nazi Germany
Weintraub, Ruth, See Ruth Weintraub Kent
Weller, Heinz, 118, 136–7, 154, 216n26
Wesse, Heinrich, 9–10
Wesse, Johanna, 9–10
West Germany, 185, 190–1
Westerplatte, battle of (1939), 28
Windsor, Ontario, 184–5
Wilhelm Gustloff
christening of, 56
chronology of service of, 56–9
design of, 55–6
and the foreign press, 57–8
as harbinger of hope, 5
as homage, 53
launching of, 56
military use, See military use of Wilhelm Gustloff
and Nazi ideology, 51–7
as passenger liner, 6, 54–8, 61, 129
as polling station, 57
sinking of, See sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff
size of, 7
Wilhelm Gustloff torpedo attack (January 30, 1945)
and boarding, See boarding
and freezing weather, See freezing weather
and lifeboats, See lifeboats
and rescues, See rescues
route of, See route
and shipwreck site, See shipwreck site
and sinking, See sinking
Winrich von Kniprode, 62
Woit, Meta, 2, 7–9, 21, 36, 64–5, 68, 84, 119, 122–3, 132–3, 159, 189–91
Woit, Horst, 2, 7–9, 21, 25, 30, 35, 42, 44, 63–9, 118–20, 132, 137–8, 158–9, 170, 186–7, 189–91
and boarding of ship, 7–9, 118–19, 122–3
childhood of, 35–6, 44, 63–4, 68–9
and escape from ship, 137–8
and evacuation from home, 8, 63–8
and experience of war, 35–6, 44
and grandparents, 8–9
and life after shipwreck, 187, 189–91
rescue of, 158–9
and Soviet occupation zone, 189–90
and torpedo hits, 132–3
and trek to ship, 8, 63–8
and uncle’s jackknife, 63, 138, 187, 190–1
Wolf, Hans, 25
“wolf pack” submarine strategy, 110–12
Wolf’s Lair, 73
Women’s Naval Auxiliary (Marinehelferinnen), 41, 49, 82, 113, 115, 133, 157, 163–6, 170, 194
World War I, 9, 22, 25, 42, 52–3, 68, 102–5, 125, 156, 169
World War II, 9, 104, 125
XXI, 114
Yalta conference, 184
Yugoslavia, 51, 59
Zahn, Wilhelm,
118, 123–7, 131–2, 137, 148, 154, 173–4
Zhukov, Georgy, 19
zigzag route, 97, 125–6, 173–4
Zobs, Leonilla Minkevics (“Nellie”), 9–10, 124, 139, 199–200
and boarding the ship, 9–10, 124
and life after shipwreck, 199–200
and torpedo hits, 139
Zobs, Peter, 10, 19
“Zweiundzwanzig Horing-strasse” (“Twenty Two Horingstrasse”) (Solzhenitsyn), 39