Darkness Fell on Gotenhafen

It is the first month of 1945. The Red Army had entered East Prussia. Millions of civilians took to the roads. The winter was severe. The evacuation was carried out by sea. Gotenhafen was the last port still open. Ships were leaving almost by the minute. Every one of them was loaded far beyond capacity. One of those ships was the Wilhelm Gustloff. She had once been a pleasure cruiser. How many people were aboard is still not known. The estimates run into the thousands. The ship went down on 30 January 1945. What sank her were torpedoes from a Soviet submarine. Very few people survived. The film tells this through the stories of a handful of people. Sonja Ziemann and Gunnar Möller appear in the ninety nine minute film, a German production Frank Wisbar finished in 1960.