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🇺🇸 United States /Crime & Justice

Victims' families remember Nazi ship sunk with prisoners on board

From CBS News · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

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In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • The Cap Arcona, once a luxury German cruise ship, became a floating concentration camp before British aircraft attacked it in Lübeck Bay on May 3, 1945.
  • Nearly all of the prisoners aboard the ship died, while the sinking of the Cap Arcona and another vessel killed about 7,000 people.
  • Families and historians continue to commemorate the victims at a memorial on Germany’s Baltic coast.

The Baltic coast near Lübeck can look peaceful, but the waters off the shore conceal the site of one of the least-known disasters of the final days of World War II. The Cap Arcona, once celebrated as the “Queen of the Atlantic,” sank after an aerial attack while carrying prisoners from Nazi concentration camps.

Launched in 1927, the ship had transported wealthy passengers between Europe and South America. It featured amenities including a tennis court and a heated swimming pool. Near the end of the war, the Nazis converted it into a floating concentration camp and packed prisoners aboard.

It's so calm, so peaceful. And yet out there is a graveyard. You can come to a place like this and just feel the weight of the history.

— Bill NivenThe historian described the contrast between the peaceful coastline and the mass deaths offshore.

British Royal Air Force planes attacked the ship and a smaller cargo vessel in Lübeck Bay on May 3, 1945, just hours before liberation. About 7,000 people died in the two sinkings, most of them aboard the Cap Arcona. Only around 400 prisoners survived the attack.

A memorial on the shore names the nationalities of those killed, including Americans, Greeks, Italians and Jews. Each year, relatives and others gather there to remember the dead. Bruno Neurath-Wilson attended to honor his father Willi, a political prisoner who survived. He said he could not imagine what happened aboard the ship when he visited the place where it sank.

When we go to the place where the Cap Arcona sank, I try to imagine what happened. I really cannot imagine what happened on the ship.

— Bruno Neurath-WilsonHe reflected on visiting the site where his father survived the sinking.
About this summary

Originally published by CBS News. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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