January 31Jan 31 #1 Posting my small collection of items related to the M/V Wilhelm Gustloff. The anniversary of the sinking was yesterday. these items relate to it's original role as a KdF cruise ship *Period photo print *"Official" Maiden voyage summary card * Souvenir "tinnie" badge from the Winter 1938/39 Italian/Mediterranean cruise
February 1Feb 1 Author #2 Here is the rough, machine translated, (google translate) text of the card. A message from the Captian of the voyage to the passengers thanking them for joining him and the crew on the maiden voyage of the ship. one interesting note. Captain Petersen wasn't the original Captain but a replacement for the Gustloff. He would also serve as her Captain on the ships last voyage. In an ironic twist, the maiden voyage was the last voyage of it's SS officer tour leader. He would commit suicide shortly after returning to port.
February 3Feb 3 Author #3 TBH I'm not sure about that last part with the SS officer. When I tried to research that name I got linked to a few different german language sites including a german Wikipedia page about an SS officer of the same rank and same name with the same middle name too but spelled Karl rather than Carl. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Weberpals
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