Robert P. WatsonThe Nazi Titanic: The Incredible Untold Story of a Doomed Ship in World War II

My immediate misgivings about the word ‘Titanic’ in the title were quickly dispelled once I realised this tragic ship had been used by the Nazi regime to rewrite the way in which the Titanic had been lost. I study shipwrecks (it’s what I do!) and was already aware of a number of German passenger ships lost during WW2. The Wilhelm Gustloff (torpedoed by a Soviet submarine) with 5,348 lives lost although some believe 9,400 were killed. The Goya suffered a similar fate with an estimated loss of 7,000-8,000 lives. The Cap Arcona (carrying prisoners) was attacked by the RAF with an estimated 5,000 dead.Goebbels was the head of the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda. With the German film industry under his firm control he embarked on a film which almost bankrupted the state by using manpower and materials much needed elsewhere. The objective was to re-write the sinking of the Titanic in a bid to portray greedy, super-rich British and American businessmen conspiring to ensure the captain raced through ice-packed seas in a bid to get to New York ahead of schedule just to see the stock value rise. Any dangers faced by the passengers were dismissed and the warnings voiced by the only German on board were ignored.Over budget and behind schedule, the film was ready by December 1942. It was a masterpiece but, for reasons which are very well explained, could not be shown to German audiences. What we do learn, however, is that the chaotic scenes of the sinking were so realistic that in 1958 director Roy Ward Baker employed the footage in his film ‘A Night to Remember.’ The ship used for the realistic on-board scenes was the Cap Arcona and the first quarter of the book describes the making of the film - leaving the premature death of the director in a tantalising ‘did he jump or was he pushed’ conundrum.Launched in Hamburg on 14 May 1927, the Cap Arcona displaced 27,561 grt and was operated by the Hamburg-South America Line. Requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine in November 1940, she was used as accommodation for sailors, allowed to become a rusting hulk and remained out of service for over 4 years. In January 1945 she was used to transport over 25,000 German troops and civilians across the Baltic between Gotenhafen and Copenhagen. On 30 January the Wilhelm Gustloff was lost and on 11 February the same Soviet submarine sank the General von Steuben with the loss of another 3,500 lives. On 20 February Captain Johannes Gertz, master of the Cap Arcona shot himself rather than face another trip back to Gotenhafen.By 30 March the Cap Arcona’s engines were finished. Given partial repairs she was decommissioned and returned to her owners in Hamburg where concentration camp prisoners were being transported in a bid to conceal their existence from advancing Allied forces. The Cap Arcona and other ships were pressed into service as prison ships with prisoners locked below deck. Some later claimed the ships were going to be sunk by the Germans in order to remove all evidence of the prisoners’ existence. On 3 May 1945 Allied aircraft attacked the Cap Arcona as part of their general assault on German shipping in the Baltic. The wreck was broken up in 1949.With far too many books about shipwrecks having the word Titanic in the title, it is easy for readers to dismiss this as just another example of another author wishing to associate his shipwreck story with the most famous shipwreck. On this occasion I overlooked that association and I am so glad I did! What I discovered was a well-researched and well written account of the war years faced by a single ship that was once the pride of the Hamburg-South America Line.If you are looking for details - you will find them here. If you are looking for a darned good read you will also find it here. What more can I say.NM

Lieferung, Verpackung und Preis-Leistungsverhältnis waren absolut ok und in Ordnung. Das Buch selbst hält was es verspricht. Ich wundere mich tatsächlich, daß noch kein Filmemacher oder Drehbuchschreiber auf die Idee gekommen ist, diesen Stoff zu verfilmen. Das wäre mal ein Kracher, ein zugegeben sehr trauriger, aber bad news sind gute Filme! Absolut lesenswert, natürlich in Englisch. Hier und da gibt es kleinere Grammatikfehler und bei deutschen Namen tun sich die Angelsachsen und die Amis traditionell etwas schwer und auch beim aufschreiben, aber davon einmal abgesehen ein gutes Buch.Absolut empfehlenswert!

great book

I enjoy reading books about ship disasters and thought "The Nazi Titanic" would be about the sinking of the SS Cap Arcomain 1945. The book was about "Jews good....everyone else bad." There was more written about concentration camps than about the ship. The sinking of the ship wasn't mentioned until page 221. The rest of the book was largely about the Titanic, which was mentioned well over 100 times. The book jumped from WWll to the Challenger (1986) and the Wold Trade Center (2001) and back to the Titanic. Chapters were about movie propaganda, movie stars, and again....the Titanic. Watson used inflammatory descriptions of various nationalities. He apparently has a "thing" about "short" men because he constantly mocked short men as "dimiutive and weak". He mocked Goebbels who limped because he had polio as a child what left him crippled.Really awful book, boring, self righteous, and almost NOTHING about the the Cap Arcona which is why I bought the book. Most of the book is boring information about the Titanic, how horrible the Germans were and are, how timid the British were and how useless the Americans were and all Germans are savage beasts. Apparently Mr. Watson doesn't like anyone but does think highly of himself as a "writer" . I don't know why this book is in print. It is one of the worst, most boring, badly written and just plain "bad" books I've ever read. I threw it into the trash where it belonged. Sorry i wasted time and money on it.

I have a strange connection to this story.My dad grew up in Hamburg, Germany in WWII and he told me that, after the war, he "stood on the bronze propeller of the Cap Arcona.""Do you know the story of the Cap Arcona?" he asked me.I admitted I hadn't."It's very tragic," he said. "But important; you should read about it."And so I did. However, I've not read any account written as authoritatively and entertainingly as "The Nazi Titanic."One of the difficult challenges in writing about an historical event must be deciding how much context to include. And in the case of a ship, how far back do you go? Prof. Watson navigates this dilemma effortlessly; there's just enough historical background so you can place the events of the book in the proper context. And if you know anything about Nazi Germany in WWII, Watson gives you plenty of material to build a great "theatre of the mind" in which the events of the book play out -- without overwhelming you with detail. I love history but some books describe so many people and places that I wind up making lists to keep them all straight.I'm tempted to say "This book reads like an action novel!" But I don't want to detract from the exacting research and outstanding narrative the author has carefully constructed. This is a serious work of history and yet very entertaining. If more historians wrote like Watson, there would be many more readers of history.I won't include spoilers but suffice to say that the scale of this tragedy is far greater than the Titanic's fate. The entire incident is an important lesson for history and Dr. Watson has done a great job memorializing it.I bought the book on Kindle but this is one I'll pick up in a bookstore or on Amazon someday in hard copy someday.