January 1945. Admiral Dönitz orders the evacuation of 5 million soldiers and civillians, cut-off in the seaports of East and West Prussia and surrounded by the Red Army. In he Prussian city of Königsberg, the infamous Nazi Reichskommissioner Erich Koch, organizes the disappearance of fabulous treasures from the castle museum then escapes the doomed city.
In the Gotenhafen naval base in the Bay of Danzig, a 17 year old Radio technician, Franz Kurze, witnesses the storming of the transport ships by thousands of panic stricken refugees and the loading of a secret cargo the night before they escape across submarine-infested waters.
1988 – The British diving contractor David Carter discovers an untouched shipwreck off the Polish coast. Marietta, a maritime art historian, and Franz accompany him on a diving expedition to the Stolpebank. An old secret, shared only by him and one other survivor haunts his memory as they search the wreck for sunken treasure…… More…(link to About the Book Page with below text)
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the memories of my good friend and fellow diver Erich Kaufhold and to Rudi Lange who survived of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in January 1945. Without Erich’s enthusiasm for the hunt for sunken treasures and Rudi’s first-hand accounts of the events leading up to and surrounding the largest maritime catastrophe in history, the writing of this book would never have been possible.
REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Tragedy of the Wilhelm Gustloff (A survivor’s account) – Rudi Lange –. Unsere Danzig Zeitschrift 1982
Die Gustloff Katastrophe - Heinz Schön – Motorbuchverlag Stuttgart, 6.Auflage 2002
Unternehmen Rettung – Fritz Brustat-Naval – Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Herford
Die KdF-Schiffe und ihr Schicksal - Heinz Schön – Motorbuchverlag Stuttgart 1987
Flucht und Vertreibung – Frank Grube / Gerhard Richter – Hoffmann und Campe Verlag, Hamburg 1908
Salvage of the Century - Ric Wharton – Best Publishing Company
www.amberroom.org
Special thanks to Hilke Belilowski for her help in researching the events surrounding the discovery of the lost Florentine mosaic in Bremen in 1997.
