Death in the Baltic The World War II Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff [Paperback]

January 1945: the outcome of World War II has been determined. The Third Reich is in free fall as the Russians close in from the east. Berlin plans an eleventh-hour exodus for the German civilians trapped in the Red Army's way. More than 10,000 women, children, sick, and elderly pack aboard theWilhelm Gustloff,a former cruise ship. Soon after the ship leaves port, three Soviet torpedoes strike it, inflicting catastrophic damage and throwing passengers into the frozen waters of the Baltic. More than 9,400 perished in the nightsix times the number lost on theTitanic. Yet as the Cold War started no one wanted to acknowledge the sinking. InDeath in the Baltic, by drawing on interviews with survivors, as well as the letters and diaries of those who perished, award-wining author Cathryn Prince reconstructs this forgotten moment in history. She weaves these personal narratives into a broader story, finally giving this WWII tragedy its rightful remembrance.

Cathryn J. Prince is the author ofA Professor, a President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science, for which she won the Connecticut Press Club's 2011 Book Award for non-fiction. She is also the author ofBurn the Town and Sack the Banks: Confederates Attack Vermont!andShot from the Sky: American POWs in Switzerland. She worked as a correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor in Switzerland and in New York, where she covered the United Nations. Prince covers the Connecticut State House for Patch.com.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One: You Have to Go On This Ship
Chapter Two: Hitler's Hostages: Life in the Eastern Territories
Chapter Three: Operation Hannibal and the Crown of the Fleet--the Wilhelm Gustloff
Chapter Four: We Knew We Had to Get Out
Chapter Five: Saving a Scuttled Reputation
Chapter Six: Battle for the Baltic
Chapter Seven: Chaos on Deck
Chapter Eight: Plummeting to the Sea Floor
Chapter lB