*Ø* Blogmanac May 14, 1927 | Launching of the ill-fated Cap Arcona
1927 The ill-fated German luxury passenger steamer, Cap Arcona, was launched at the Blohm & Voss shipyard, in Hamburg. Less than 20 years later, many thousands of innocent prisoners aboard her were to become victims of an Allied bombing that seems to have fallen through the cracks of history.
On April 26, 1945, the Cap Arcona was loaded with prisoners from the concentration camp Neuengamme and together with two smaller ships, the Thielbek and the Athen, was brought into the Lübeck Bay with the intention to destroy evidence of what happened at Neuengamme.
On May 3, 1945, the Cap Arcona, the Thielbek, the Athen and the passenger liner Deutschland floated unprotected in the Lubeck bay between Neustadt and Scharbeutz and were sunk by Allied aircraft. Approximately 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners from the concentration camps were drowned; any survivors were shot by the SS.
With similar sinkings of the Wilhelm Gustloff and the Goya in the Baltic Sea these were three of the highest losses of life of any sinking in history.
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
1927 The ill-fated German luxury passenger steamer, Cap Arcona, was launched at the Blohm & Voss shipyard, in Hamburg. Less than 20 years later, many thousands of innocent prisoners aboard her were to become victims of an Allied bombing that seems to have fallen through the cracks of history.
On April 26, 1945, the Cap Arcona was loaded with prisoners from the concentration camp Neuengamme and together with two smaller ships, the Thielbek and the Athen, was brought into the Lübeck Bay with the intention to destroy evidence of what happened at Neuengamme.
On May 3, 1945, the Cap Arcona, the Thielbek, the Athen and the passenger liner Deutschland floated unprotected in the Lubeck bay between Neustadt and Scharbeutz and were sunk by Allied aircraft. Approximately 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners from the concentration camps were drowned; any survivors were shot by the SS.
With similar sinkings of the Wilhelm Gustloff and the Goya in the Baltic Sea these were three of the highest losses of life of any sinking in history.
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Pip Wilson posted item above at 8:45 PM | Permalink
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