Wilhelm Gustloff: World's Deadliest Sea Disaster

Unsolved History: Wilhelm Gustloff (2004)

*** (out of 4)

The German luxury liner Wilhelm Gustloff sank in the Baltic Sea in 1945 after being struck by three Russian torpedoes. The boat was carrying refugees and perhaps as many as 9,000 people were killed. Depending on who you listen to, the death number was at the very least 6,000, which is four times as many that were on the Titanic. This documentary tries to figure out why so many people were on the ship, why it sank so quickly and who might have wanted the entire thing covered up over the years. With experts as well as survivors, the documentary tries to get to the truth on a tragedy that has pretty much been forgotten over time. As someone who wasn't familiar with this story, I found the documentary to be pretty good in explaining what exactly happened and it also answered some questions on why so many people had to die when they had enough lifeboats. It was rather shocking to hear that the life jackets used on the children actually killed more of them because for some reason it turned them upside down in the water. Another interesting part is when some divers go to the sunken ship and discover what appears to be some sort of sabotage as it's clear the ship has had additional help being destroyed after it was already on the ocean floor. The one aspect I didn't care too much was with some of the computerized analysis when it came time to figure out how many were on board. I think it would have been better to just stick to some of the eyewitness accounts of the night.