The Thielbek was a 2,815 GRT

Gross Register Tonnage

Gross register tonnage a ship's total internal volume expressed in "register tons", one of which equals to a volume of . It is calculated from the total permanently enclosed capacity of the vessel. The ship's net register tonnage is obtained by reducing the volume of non-revenue-earning spaces i.e...

 freighter

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

 that was sunk along with the SS Cap Arcona and the Deutschland

SS Deutschland (1923)

SS Deutschland Sometimes called Deutschland IV to distinguish from others of the name was a 21,046 gross registered ton German HAPAG ocean liner which was sunk in a British air attack in 1945, with great loss of life....

during British air raids on May 3, 1945 while anchored in the Bay of Lübeck

Bay of Lübeck

The Bay of Lübeck is a basin in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of German lands of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein. It forms the southwestern part of the Bay of Mecklenburg....

 with the loss of 2,750 lives. The ship was a passenger ship flying a white flag and had been commandeered along with the Cap Arcona to take on board prisoners from the Neuengamme, Stutthof

Stutthof concentration camp

Stutthof was the first Nazi concentration camp built outside of 1937 German borders.Completed on September 2, 1939, it was located in a secluded, wet, and wooded area west of the small town of Sztutowo . The town is located in the former territory of the Free City of Danzig, 34 km east of...

, and Mittelbau-Dora

Mittelbau-Dora

Mittelbau-Dora was a Nazi Germany labour camp that provided workers for the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory in the Kohnstein, situated near Nordhausen, Germany....

 concentration camps. It was later revealed by the head of the Hamburg Gestapo that the prisoners were to be killed, and it has been suggested that it was planned to do this by scuttling the ships with the prisoners aboard.

Background

On 17 April 1945 the Thielbek was informed that they were to prepare for a "special operation", and the following day John Jacobsen, the Captain of the Thielbek, was summoned to a conference by the SS along with Captain Bertram of the Cap Arcona at which they were ordered to take on board concentration camp prisoners. Both the captains refused, and Jacobsen was relieved of command of his ship.

The order to transfer the prisoners from the camps to the prison ships came from Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 Gauleiter

Gauleiter

A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...

 Karl Kaufmann

Karl Kaufmann

- External links :* in Der Deutsche Reichstag, Wahlperiode nach d. 30. Jan. 1933, Bd.: 1938, Berlin, 1938...

, who was himself acting on orders from Berlin. Kaufmann later claimed during a War Crimes Tribunal that the prisoners were destined for Sweden, however at the same trial Bassewitz-Behr, the head of the Hamburg Gestapo, said that the prisoners were in fact to be killed in compliance with Himmler's orders.

Embarkation of prisoners began on 20 April, with the Swedish Red Cross present. The ship's water supply was insufficient for so many people and 20 to 30 prisoners died daily. The prisoners, with the exception of political prisoners, remained on board for 2 or 3 days before being transferred to the Cap Arcona by the smaller vessel Athen.

Sinking

Between the two attacks on the Cap Arcona, nine Hawker Typhoon

Hawker Typhoon

The Hawker Typhoon was a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft. While the Typhoon was designed to be a medium-high altitude interceptor, and a direct replacement for the Hawker Hurricane, several design problems were encountered, and the Typhoon never completely satisfied...

 aircraft of No. 198 Squadron RAF

No. 198 Squadron RAF

No. 198 Squadron was a Royal Air Force aircraft squadron that operated during the Second World War particularly in the ground attack role as the allies advanced through continental Europe.-History:...

 stationed at Plantlünne attacked the Thielbek and the Deutschland, 5 aircraft firing rockets at the Deutschland and 4 at the Thielbek. Numerous cannon shells and 32 rockets were fired at the Thielbek, which was left on fire with a 30° list to starboard, and sank 20 minutes after being attacked. Of the 2,800 prisoners on board the Thielbek, only 50 survived the attack.

Aftermath

Four years after her sinking the Thielbek was refloated and the human remains found on board laid to rest in the "Cap Arcona" cemetery in Neustadt. She was repaired and returned to service, having been renamed Reinbek. In 1961 the Knöhr and Burchard shipping company sold the ship which was then renamed Magdalene and later Old Warrior and sailed under the Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

nian flag before finally being scrapped in 1974 in Split

Split (city)

Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...

, Yugoslavia.

See also

• Maritime disasters
• SS Cap Arcona
• SS Wilhelm Gustloff
  Wilhelm Gustloff (ship)
  The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German KdF flagship during 1937-1945, constructed by the Blohm & Voss shipyards. It sank after being torpedoed by the Soviet submarine on 30 January 1945....
  
  
• RMS Laconia
  RMS Laconia (1921)
  The second RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor to the Laconia of 1911 to 1917...
  
  
• SS General von Steuben
• HMT Rohna
  HMT Rohna
  His Majesty's Troopship Rohna was a troop ship carrying U.S. troops that was sunk by an air attack of the Luftwaffe during World War II, on 26 November 1943...
  
  
• SS Armenia
  Armenia (ship)
  The Armenia was a transport ship operated by the Soviet Union during World War II to carry both wounded soldiers and military cargo. It had originally been built as a passenger ship for operations on the Black Sea, one of the first passenger ships constructed in the Soviet Union.Armenia was sunk on...
  
  
• Junyō Maru
  Junyo Maru
  The was a Japanese cargo ship that was sunk in 1944 by the British submarine , resulting in the loss of over 5,000 lives.The ship was built in 1913 by Robert Duncan Co. Glasgow. It displaced 5,065 tons, was long, wide, and deep. The engines were rated at...
  
   - Japanese "hell ship
  Hell Ship
  A hell ship is a ship with extremely unpleasant living conditions or with a reputation for cruelty among the crew. It now generally refers to the ships used by the Imperial Japanese Navy to transport Allied prisoners of war out of the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore during World War II. The...
  
  " torpedoed while transporting about 6,000 prisoners of war and forced labourers.
• Ukishima Maru
  Ukishima Maru
  The Ukishima Maru was a Japanese naval transport vessel. She was originally built as a passenger ship in March 1937. During World War II, she served as a naval vessel after receiving heavy armament...
  
   - Imperial Japanese Navy
  Imperial Japanese Navy
  The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
  
  vessel sunk while transporting 4,000 to 5,000 Korean forced labourers.

External links

• Jewish surivor of the British raids