Original subtitles

- [Narrator] In the late 1920s,

a German cruise liner,

SS Cap Arcona,

is queen of the South Atlantic.

- We forget before air travel,

the way to get around if you wanted to do it in style was

to go on a luxury liner.

- The point of having the opulent ship is

to be a showpiece for the world.

- [Narrator] This ocean-going palace would become embroiled

in many twists and turns in the service

of the Nazis' regime.

- The Cap Arcona had a varied history.

- [Narrator] While World War II raged

across the continent and beyond,

Germany's finest ocean luxury liner sets sail

on a tale to ultimate catastrophe.

- From luxury vessel

to becoming a tragedy amongst tragedies.

- Ending up as one of history's worst maritime disasters.

[upbeat instrumental music]

- [Narrator] 1945, the end of World War II.

The entire continent of Europe is in disarray,

cities reduced to rumble and millions of people killed,

injured or displaced.

As the allies uncover the destruction the Nazis visited

upon the world,

secret documents about one particular series

of events are carefully classified and hidden away,

never to be seen for decades.

At the center of this story is one ship,

the Cap Arcona.

- I mean the beauty of the second world war is the amount

of information that was recorded in multiple different ways.

Of course, you've got reams and reams

of official reports and diaries and letters,

and you've also got the technological advances.

- This is the material

that could jeopardize our national security.

- It's not surprising that a lot

of this information does get buried

for one reason or another.

It might be deliberate.

It might be accidental.

- [Dr. Tessa] There's lots that we don't want revealed.

- Why would anyone want to dredge up the horrors of war,

especially one on the magnitude of World War II

after the war had ended?

- [Narrator] The story of the Cap Arcona starts

at the end of the First World War,

as Germany is in a dismal place.

The country is in economic ruin,

forced to accept responsibility for the conflict

and pay huge reparations.

- The story of Germany in the 1920s is very interesting.

I mean, post-war,

of course, it's on its knees.

It's just been humiliated in a war,

but it also has the economic issue of recovering

from all that expenditure and the reparations

which the allies are making them pay.

- Germany is the deindustrialized, demilitarized,

is paying steep reparations.

It's emasculated, it's feeling really sorry for itself.

It's got hyperinflation.

It's the country on its knees.

- [Narrator] Although Germany is in the midst

of economic ruin and recovering from the loss

of the First World War,

one aggressive and well-managed ship builder

defies the odds.

- Blohm & and Voss,

one of the world's greatest ship builders

still in business today,

and Hamburg Sud,

one of the greatest ship operators still in business today,

they launched this idea

that they're going to build the greatest ship afloat

as a way of getting Germany back in the maritime business,

but also for purposes of pride.

- [Narrator] Inspired by the Titanic,

no expense will be spared in the creation

of this magnificent cruise ship.

- When you hear about the scale of both the cost

of the Cap Arcona and, really,

its facilities onboard, it's mind-boggling.

35 billion Reichsmark to build.

The luxury was off the scale.

A full-size tennis court.

An indoor ballroom.

The apartments themselves had silk upholstery

on the furniture,

full length baths.

Almost no effort had been spared

in creating this unbelievably luxurious vessel.

- It's an absolute magnificent luxury ship,

very much in keeping with the 1920s.

- It's about enjoying oneself

and the rise of consumerism and luxury.

- And that opulence would eventually see the Cap Arcona

become part of the Nazi party's propaganda machine,

led by Joseph Goebbels.

- Joseph Goebbels' rise to power was meteoric.

Goebbels had exactly what Hitler

and the Nazis were looking for.

He was brilliant.

He was fanatical and he lacked any sense of humanity.

- It's not surprising given what his skillset was.

His skillset was convincing people of certain ideas

and certain ideologies.

- It's funny, isn't it?

Goebbels is such a curious character,

carrying around almost like a Carbuncle

or a cannonball behind him,

this giant inferiority complex.

And I think he respects,

loves Hitler's single-mindedness.

- Consequently, in no time at all,

he's one of Hitler's right-hand men as the administer

of the Department of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment.

- There is a talent for the mastery of language,

manipulation through imagery and messaging,

and the way in which he's able to harbor that talent.

The outlet that he's provided for this talent is

through the vehicle of national socialism

through Hitler's Nazi party.

[glass shattering] - In the late 1920s,

Goebbels was tasked with reorganizing

and publicizing the largely ignored Nazi party.

At that same time,

finally finished, the Cap Arcona is christened

on May 14th, 1927.

- The launching of the Cap Arcona in 1927,

a near replica of the Titanic,

that was a source of great pride for the German people.

Not only practically did that ship get Germany back

into the cruising and maritime business,

but it was held up as a source of German might and pride.

- [Dr. Tessa] There was the level of opulence

and luxury enjoyed that hadn't been seen

for quite some time.

- This incredibly sophisticated luxurious vessel known

as the Queen of the South Atlantic

and was drawing people from all walks of life,

but people with money and influence.

So there would be Hollywood film stars going onboard,

members of the royalty,

captains of industry,

they were flocking to this ship.

And this ship, of course,

represented the technological rebirth of Germany

after the First World War.

- It is the sort of rise before the fall, isn't it,

the pride before the fall in many respects?

Because decadence, frivolity,

pleasure is not something that is the focus of

German politics in the later 1930s.

- [Narrator] However, the story of the Cap Arcona

would be short-lived.

About eight years from the day she was launched,

she would be destroyed, [crowd cheering]

but how and why would remain a mystery for decades to come.

[film projector clicking]

In 1975, after 30 years of silence,

a small number of classified World War II documents

are released under the British government's

National Secret Act.

These documents describe a terrible tragedy

at sea involving the Cap Arcona,

which cost tens of thousands of accidental deaths.

[ominous drumming music]

- Britain has a variety

of rules governing the classification

of sensitive documents.

- A lot of archives and a lot of national papers

just simply aren't released into the public

for a set number of years.

- Pretty much anything sensitive at the end

of the Second World War would have been buried

in the archives.

Now, that doesn't mean it's being hidden

and it doesn't mean it's being destroyed,

although that could happen

and historians often believe it does happen.

But it does mean that there's going to be a minimum period

of time until the public are going to be able

to see this material.

And in some instances,

other things are kept back even longer.

[film projector clicking]

- [Narrator] Although the Cap Arcona is the peak

of German luxury,

things were about to go seriously wrong

with the stock market crash of 1929.

Germany is once again in financial devastation.

- I mean, the tragedy

for Germany is really the economic disaster,

at the end of the 1920s,

the crash in the United States

that affected the whole of the world.

So you've got The Great Depression in the 1930s.

Germany was as affected by that as everyone else.

So this small economic resurgence which seemed

to be gathering pace is stopped in its tracks.

You get a real sense of not only economic hardship,

but also political grievance.

And the combination of these two factors

will explain the rise of a party that promises

to make Germany great again. [ominous instrumental music]

- [Narrator] In 1933, Hitler is appointed chancellor

to assist with the economic stabilization of Germany,

but quickly begins to implement racist

and fascist policies in order to seize total control

of the country.

[Hitler speaking in foreign language]

[crowd cheering]

[ominous instrumental music]

[boots thudding in tandem]

- [Narrator] Germany's days as a peaceful nation are over.

The Nazis are coming.

[boots thudding in tandem]

- Hitler comes along and is very good at blame-mongering,

scapegoating, playing the us versus them card.

- He demonizes all those who he deems as others in Germany

and they're the ones who are responsible

for the economic turmoil.

- So they channel their frustration,

and in that respect they prove they have raw talent.

They have raw talent for manipulation,

for commandeering the masses,

for puppeteering, if you like,

great swathes of the population.

How did the most educated country in Europe end up voting

for national socialism and Hitler as chancellor?

- [Narrator] Propaganda campaigns led by Joseph Goebbels,

heralding Aryan superiority sweep through Germany

as a two-tiered society is created

between Aryans and inferiors.

[dramatic ominous instrumental music]

Gradually, the Nazi regime

begins building concentration camps to imprison these groups

of people as well as any political opponents.

[factory machinery rumbling]

Blatantly defying the Treaty of Versailles,

signed after World War I,

Hitler begins rapidly rebuilding

and re-arming the German Military.

As a result,

the world's rich and famous turn their backs

on the Cap Arcona.

- The Cap Arcona's popularity diminishes precipitously

once the Nazis come to power.

- Far from being a symbol of a resurgent nation

that people want to be associated with,

it now becomes a symbol of Nazism.

- [Narrator] Having lost all appeal

as a tourist destination under the Nazi regime,

the Cap Arcona makes its final voyage on August 24th, 1939.

But it leaves South America

with only two passengers making the return trip

back to Germany.

[ship rumbling] [ominous instrumental music]

The very next day,

another German ship,

the Schleswig-Holstein, a battleship,

arrives in the Polish Port of Danzig.

[ominous instrumental music]

- I mean, the interesting thing about German sea power is

what happens with the cruiser, the Schleswig-Holstein.

Because it is sent to Danzig,

which is a free port but in the Polish corridor,

which is a strip of land which has been taken off Germany

at the end of the First World War and given the Poland.

- [Narrator] Unbeknownst to the greeting crowd,

the Schleswig-Holstein is carrying

300 heavily armed German assault troops below deck,

preparing to initiate an attack which would result

in a global conflict.

[ominous rumbling music]

In the early morning hours of September, 1st,

the Schleswig-Holstein slips out of the moorings

and glides downstream to anchor with a clear view

of the Polish garrison.

At 4:47 a.m.,

the hidden assault troops emerged

and unleashed their weapons on the garrison,

commencing the German invasion of Poland.

[ominous instrumental music]

[bombs exploding]

- Hitler invades Poland with a blitzkrieg operation.

Now everything changes.

- [Narrator] The Polish cities,

Warsaw and Krakow are bombed,

and the port city of Danzig,

which is a strategic location in the Baltics, is annexed.

The Nazis refuse to withdraw their troops,

and two days later,

France and Britain declare war on Germany.

[cannon shots exploding]

Meanwhile, the Cap Arcona is about to play a new role.

- The Cap Arcona is sailing back to Germany just days

before World War II breaks out.

The captain receives the communication,

make immediate plans to get back to a port.

- I mean, ultimately what tends to happen

in any nation during wartime is that a lot

of civil shipping will be requisitioned by the government,

it happened in Britain,

it happened in America during the Second World War,

to assist with the war.

- This is a sizeable vessel and you're at war.

You need to train, [waves gushing]

you need to house your navy,

and it's an obvious stopgap solution.

- [Narrator] The Cap Arcona makes its way

to the Port of Gotenhafen.

On arrival, the ship has painted military gray

and its fine furnishings are removed

as it transforms into a barracks for German sailors,

a far cry from its days of hosting royalty

and celebrities onboard.

Although transformed, its former opulence

will not be forgotten.

- An early 2014,

I was working on a book on the final week

of the war in Europe,

and I was looking for stories of love and loss,

triumph and tragedy as a way of capturing the power

of the last week of the world's worst war.

And pretty much by dumb luck,

which is oftentimes how the process of discovery works,

I found a letter from a Major Till in the British Army

where he essentially says,

he'd never seen or experienced anything as horrific

as what happened on the Cap Arcona

in the final days of the war.

And I thought to myself,

what is that?

I'd never heard of it.

- So when you're doing research

and you find something that's unexpected,

most of the time you want to find out more.

[ominous instrumental music] - Safely back at port,

the Cap Arcona has now taken up her new military role

in the Kriegsmarine,

the German Navy.

Meanwhile, as a result of their invasion of Poland,

the Nazis secure the Baltic Sea as their domain.

- The Baltic is of vital importance

and it also prevents you from being landlocked.

You need to be able to get in fuel,

[paper rustling] food, munitions.

It's the thoroughfare. It's the highway.

It's like the ultimate motorway

and it's also somewhere

where you can train your naval servicemen.

[ominous instrumental music]

- [Narrator] Having repurposed the Cap Arcona,

German sailors perform exercises on the upper decks

and use the cabins below as they're sleeping quarters.

- It's also such an advanced ship that her engine,

her propulsion systems,

her navigational systems were the state of the art.

- [Narrator] However, the eventual destruction

of this magnificent ship still remained a mystery.

[paper rustling]

- So I kept doing research and I found a second letter

from a general named Mills-Roberts.

He was the general in charge of the British Sixth Commando.

- [Narrator] This letter references two attacks

against his Nazi ship in Lubeck Bay,

immediately establishing a connection

to the first document written by Major Till.

- So now that there's two bits of information,

then it's going to be easier to keep

looking longer and harder.

- The most obvious question that I had,

that anybody would have is why would a British general

and a British major consider the destruction

of a German ship at the end of World War II to be a tragedy?

General Mills-Roberts was a hardened veteran.

You would think that nothing would bother someone like that.

And for him to basically see this as one

of the worst things he'd ever seen in his entire life,

it had to be bad.

[dramatic instrumental music] [boots marching in tandem]

- [Narrator] With no sign

of slowing down their aggressive expansionist ambitions,

the Nazis launched their invasion of Norway.

[airplane engines rumbling] They will rely heavily

on their Kriegsmarine for this coastal assault.

- The story of Norway is very interesting

because you've got Denmark which falls very quickly,

but Norway doesn't.

Norway fights really hard against the Germans.

It's determined to resist.

And it's at this point that the allies try to fight back.

[cannon shots exploding] So there's a lot

of Naval action going on in that early campaign in Norway

and a lot of Kriegsmarine ships are sunk.

They're losing a lot of ships,

a lot of destroyers.

They're losing some even bigger ships than that

and this shows you how important this war effort was.

- If the Nazis can control the Norwegian ports,

they're very much in control of that entire region.

[ominous instrumental music]

[relaxing instrumental music] [paper rustling]

- [Narrator] With the Nazis now occupying Poland,

Denmark, Norway,

France, and the low countries,

they control vast swathes of the European continent.

Their next target is the UK.

Lying vulnerable and alone in the English Channel,

Hitler makes plans for an amphibious assault

to capture Britain and take full control of the seas.

- Hitler was obsessed with Britain.

That was his rival as he saw it.

- Sea Lion is the code for the German invasion

of the United Kingdom and it's,

of course, a massive undertaking.

And then to make matters worse, of course,

the Germans are going to preface it all by heavy bombing.

[dramatic instrumental music]

[bombs exploding]

- [Narrator] In July, 1940,

the Luftwaffe begins an air and sea blockade

in preparation for Operation Sea Lion.

They target coastal infrastructure and shipping operations

in the English Channel.

This is the first major air attack in World War II.

- The battle of Britain unfolds in quite a curious way.

The initial strategy by the Germans made a lot of sense,

which is the target communication centers and also airfields

so you're basically knocking out the enemy air force.

Because they don't have initial success from July onwards,

the Germans decide to switch tactics and target London,

almost as though they're going to bomb us into submission.

- And squadron after squadron fly across the English Channel

to bomb Britain back to the Stone Ages.

[airplane engines rumbling] And in one of history's

greatest upsets, a few RAF,

Royal Air Force pilots defeat the Luftwaffe.

- It's one of the first German defeats,

the Battle of Britain. [airplane engines roaring]

They don't achieve air superiority and the blitz

in many ways can be read as a desperate act,

an act of desperation.

- [Narrator] With the Nazis unable to defeat the British,

Joseph Goebbels wants to launch another attack

to weaken their resolve,

this time using propaganda.

- Goebbels' the propaganda chief,

so frustrated and outraged is he

that Britain's still fighting on,

that he decides to create a kind of propaganda tool

that is going to take the wind out of our sails,

as he perceives it.

- Goebbels did several things for Hitler.

He was a captivating speaker,

fanatically loyal, devoted,

but one of the things was make movies.

Joseph Goebbels produced or was a part of hundreds of films.

- A recognition that this was a powerful medium

was understood by the Nazis,

particularly by Goebbels early on.

[waves gushing]

- The British Navy for hundreds of years has been one

of the most powerful in the world.

And Hitler and Goebbels not only want to defeat Britain,

they want to embarrass Britain,

but first and foremost,

the British Navy,

the Royal Navy.

And what better way to do this than to point out

that Britain's Titanic had sunk while Germany's Titanic,

the Cap Arcona was still afloat.

- [Narrator] In April, 1912,

on its maiden voyage, the Titanic,

a luxurious passenger ship,

a liner with such advanced engineering

it was deemed unsinkable,

headed across the Atlantic from Southampton to New York

with 2,240 passengers and crew onboard.

But just four days into its journey,

it hit an iceberg and sank.

- The press throughout the UK

was very much promoting it as a symbol

of British ingenuity and British strength.

- So when the Titanic goes down after hitting the iceberg

and she takes roughly 1,500 souls down with her,

making this at the time,

one of history's deadliest maritime disasters.

[ominous instrumental music]

- [Narrator] Recognizing the fact the Titanic disaster

is a delicate moment in British history,

Goebbels plans to use this tragedy as the centerpiece

for his propaganda campaign to demoralize the British.

- Hitler and Goebbels were fascinated with movies.

They loved Hollywood films.

They watched them all the time.

It was not uncommon for them to watch two

or three back-to-back-to-back

with translators and interpreters.

[film projector clicking] - Goebbels decides

that the best way to get back at the British morale is

to make a film about the sinking of the Titanic.

- So he comes up with this idea

that you make a film about the Titanic in order

to portray the British Navy as incompetent

and as ruthless and as stupid and all of these things,

with the grand design

that the German people will believe it, and therefore,

want to launch an attack against the United Kingdom

or support that kind of an attack.

- [Narrator] Although she may have survived longer,

the Cap Arcona would eventually follow the same fate

as the Titanic and end up sinking.

Bit by bit,

her final story was unfolding.

Having discovered two documents,

hinting a tragedy surrounding the Cap Arcona,

the search for answers intensifies.

- The first thing I did after finding those letters

was I went online.

I didn't try to go to an archive or look for books,

just went online.

So I was sketching out different scenarios that might

have happened at the end of the war based

on the little bit that Till said,

the little bit that Mills-Roberts said,

and what was said in the obituaries.

And I was able to come up with some,

what seemed to be pretty reasonable guesses.

It involved a ship.

It took place in the final days of the war.

It was in the Baltic Sea.

It was tragic.

It was so important

that the documents were probably classified.

So you put those little breadcrumbs together

and it starts walking you into some explanations

of what may have happened.

- Hidden stories are constantly reemerging

through documentary evidence,

through archeological evidence,

and occasionally through someone's memory

that's never been challenged before.

There are so many stories,

particularly these smaller ones that have been forgotten

or been buried that will be resurrected at some point.

[film projector clicking] [ominous instrumental music]

- [Narrator] In June, 1941,

Germany launches Operation Barbarossa.

They set their sites on conquering Russia,

opening up a new Eastern front.

- Operation. Barbarossa was one of the largest,

most ambitious military actions in world history.

Hitler's going to send multiple divisions

into the Soviet Union,

and in a way it's the turning point of the war.

- [Narrator] This large-scale surprise assault consists

of over 3 million German soldiers

who initially overwhelm the Russian army.

[tanks rumbling]

- I mean, you can see from the launch

of Operation Barbarossa

that while you've got the military troops at the front,

at the tip of the spear so to speak,

following very close behind

are these murderous squads of Einsatzgruppen.

So clearly the policy is dual edged from the start,

which is that you're going to defeat the Russian enemy,

but while you're defeating them,

you're going to kill off anyone

you consider to be undesirable.

- This is hell on Earth,

even in the hellish nature of World War II.

Globally, this is a real epicenter.

[typewriter clickety-clacking]

- [Narrator] As the scale of the war continues to grow,

Goebbels is busy making his propaganda film

to undermine the British Navy.

He hires German director, Herbert Selpin,

to bring his vision of the Nazi Titanic to life.

- He's the best known German film director.

He's not that pro-Nazi,

but he is very anti British so he's the right guy

for this type of job,

and he's also at the top of his game.

And he brings on his childhood friend

who is a Nazi ideologue.

- [Narrator] Walter Zerlett-Olfenius had been a screenwriter

in Germany since 1936.

- What Hitler wanted and then ultimately

what Goebbels wants,

he doesn't want

a typical Goebbels ham-fisted propaganda film.

He wants an action,

drama, romance hybrid,

just like the Hollywood blockbusters like "Casablanca".

And that's what Selpin specialized in.

- He's got an offer that's too good for him to refuse,

a huge budget, huge support,

the starting point for his own Hollywood.

And in essence,

I expect that he thought he would be a big player

in that new Hollywood for years and years to come.

[ominous rumbling music] [fire crackling]

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, despite their initial success,

the Nazis are unable to dominate Russia as quickly

as they planned and they're severely unprepared

for the harsh winter conditions.

In December, 1941,

the Red Army launches a massive counter-attack

against the Nazis,

driving them back from Moscow in utter chaos.

[tank rumbling] - The writing is really

on the wall when they're turned back from Moscow

in terrible winter conditions.

The Russians counter-attack.

Germans are pushed all the way back to a line from which,

although they will advance from a little bit,

they never get back to Moscow.

- As we get to the stage in the war

where Germany is losing,

the front with Russia has turned into a very hard front

that they're now retreating backwards from.

You've got a huge morale problem.

- [Narrator] In early 1942,

filming of the Nazi "Titanic" propaganda film finally begins

at Berlin's high end Tobis Studios.

Goebbels secures a budget of 4 million Reichsmarks,

the largest film budget in the world at the time.

- Goebbels has got the green light to go

from Hitler to do this as a massive budget.

- They reassign entire military units to be extras,

the cast of thousands.

They find the most beautiful German models,

the most handsome matinee actors,

the best set builders and carpenters.

I mean, they spare no expense.

- Hitler's interest in the film would've put more pressure

on Goebbels than Selpin

because of the great personal admiration

that Goebbels had for Hitler.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, Goebbels' "Titanic" propaganda

project is going terribly.

Director Selpin's Hollywood behavior

reaches a new level of demanding.

He insists on using a ship from the German Navy

to be a centerpiece of action in this film.

- So you've got all these kind of creative nightmares.

You've got giant egos.

You've got ridiculous amounts of cash,

despite rations and restrictions,

and you can't get the sinking of the ship that you need

to make your movie the blockbuster that Goebbels wants

and that Selpin wants.

- The movie is running over budget, behind schedule.

And Hitler wants his movie,

so he's breathing down Goebbels' neck.

Goebbels wants his movie,

so he's breathing down Selpin's neck.

[aircraft humming] - To create a film

about the Titanic,

you have to have a scene with an iceberg.

That is a necessity.

Selpin obviously wants it to be grand.

He wants it to look as good as possible

Because that has been his motivation seemingly

throughout the entire filming process.

[ominous rumbling music]

- [Narrator] To satisfy Selpin's latest demands,

Goebbels leans in on the Kriegsmarine

to present several different ship options

to use in the film.

- If they're going to make a film about the Titanic,

they have a replica of the Titanic sitting

on the Polish coast.

- What better, the ship that was in effect the Titanic

of the 1920s and 1930s,

the Cap Arcona?

- You paint it.

You make sure it is restored to the point

where people look at it and they say,

that's the Titanic.

[waves gushing]

- [Narrator] Having secured the Cap Arcona,

Selpin relocates the entire cast and crew

to the Southern Baltic. [paper rustling]

Goebbels arranges for German Naval officers

to be used as extras for the film.

Filming is schedule to resume April 29th, 1942.

But it doesn't go as planned.

- Basically anything that could go wrong, went wrong.

The weather doesn't cooperate.

One of the lead actresses gets pregnant

from one of the soldiers or sailors on set.

The sailors and soldiers on set are getting drunk

and wrecking the set.

People are having too much fun not serving in the war,

therefore they don't memorize their lines.

Everything is going wrong.

All that is grading on the perfectionist,

Herbert Selpin's nerves.

- Selpin is a person who's supposed to be in control.

And he's being given situations and circumstances

that are out of his control,

especially when you're putting in military personnel,

naval officers on the ship as extras.

He's just building up and building up stress until he gets

to a breaking point.

- What's even more pointed is that he talks about it

and that's where the director makes a fatal mistake.

He assumes that somehow he is above the regular nightmare

that is Nazi oppression.

And so he speaks rather freely about the problems

and ultimately that speaks ill of the boss,

who is Goebbels.

- There was no freedom of thought.

- [Narrator] After Selpin's meltdown on set,

Zerlett resigns from working on the film.

A loyal Nazi,

he boards a train to Berlin

and reports Selpin's behavior to the Gestapo,

sealing the fate of his former childhood friend.

- So Nazi Germany was all built

on absolute unquestioning devotion.

People were encouraged to rat on their neighbors

if somebody wasn't completely devoted.

The Gestapo was everywhere.

So when Herbert Selpin goes off on the Nazi party,

he's summoned to Berlin.

- So when Selpin is brought up

to discuss his outburst, he's unrepentant.

He may not have thought that it was as serious as it was,

and that would be an error in judgment on his part

and he pays the price for it in the end.

- [Narrator] Unapologetic about his disparaging remarks

of the Nazi regime,

Selpin is handed over to the Gestapo,

charged with treason and disloyalty.

Around midnight on July, 31st,

German guards visit Selpin's cell,

only to find him hanged.

The Nazi Titanic needs a new director.

- With Selpin dead,

Joseph Goebbels' epic propaganda film was in jeopardy.

Not surprisingly, no other directors wanted

to finish the film.

They found a B director named Werner Klinger

who came in and finished the project.

[film projector clicking] - It's presented

with great fanfare to Goebbels who watches it

in a private viewing room and slowly it dawns

on him the full irony of what he's done.

He's created in the middle

of what's becoming an increasingly desperate war

that Germany is no longer winning,

he's created a metaphor for Germany in its war effort.

He's got a bunch of people heading towards disaster,

led by a sort of unthinking, foolish leader.

This is Germany.

- [Dr. Tessa] Goebbels gets the balance wrong.

He goes in too heavy with his anti-British narrative.

- He thought that this film would work in the first place.

And then much to his shock and horror,

it's a terrible film and he realizes

that there's absolutely nothing

that can be spun out of this.

[cannon shots exploding] - Having the Kriegsmarine

be in the position it is when the film is completed

and having so many individuals having been killed

on the water,

it is difficult to imagine that the German public

would've responded well to this type of film.

- [Narrator] Although forever immortalized on celluloid,

the mystery of her real fate was still being investigated.

- I contacted major Holocaust museums.

I contacted major military history museums,

World War II museums and said to them,

what is this unimaginable tragedy that occurred

in the final days and hours of the war?

And everybody said there was none.

- Even though most government documents

should be released now after 30 years,

we're going to keep some stuff back.

- I contacted the Archives in England.

I contacted the National Archives in Washington.

I sent letters to museums.

I called, I contacted prominent historians,

and I either didn't get answers or I got people saying,

"We don't have any information,"

or "I've never heard of this, it's implausible."

[upbeat instrumental music] - After seeing the sinking

of "Titanic", meant to be the crown jewel

to launch a Nazi Hollywood,

Goebbels bans the film in Germany.

- After such high expectations,

after investing so much money and effort

and time into this movie,

it's not even shown.

They don't get to use it,

so it does not accomplish its purpose

of changing the complexion of the war.

- So after this,

the Cap Arcona returns to its previous wartime use

which is as a training base.

[film projector clicking] - In June, 1944,

the British, the Americans

and the Canadians stormed the beaches of Normandy

during a massive amphibious assault known as D-day.

[cannon shots exploding]

- D-day is very much the signature day

of the allied war effort.

- [John] It's an absolute crucial,

pivotal moment in the Second World War history.

- It's the beginning of the end of the Nazi reign.

The allies are going to get a toehold on the continent.

- [Dr. Arne] D-day is an overwhelming success.

- As fate would have it,

I get a chance to speak

for the 70th Anniversary of D-day in Normandy.

I'm on a luxury riverboat and giving some lectures

at the Normandy landing beaches,

and I meet an academy award-winning filmmaker there.

We strike up a conversation.

It turns out that I know her parents

and we have all these connections,

and I tell her what I'm doing and I say that I'm frustrated.

I can't get information and she says,

"Well, let me make a phone call.

"I know," and she proceeds to tick off some

of the world's most important people.

And my first thought is, "Yeah, right,"

Because I didn't know her well.

Sure, she'll make a phone call on my behalf

and sure enough, she did.

And shortly thereafter I got the call,

"We found the document."

[ominous instrumental music]

[missile hissing]

- [Narrator] Exactly three years

after the German invasion of Russia,

Operation Bagration begins.

2 million Red Army soldiers counter-attack

and begin pushing the Germans out of Russia.

As payback to the Nazis

for their savagery towards Russian soldiers and citizens,

the Red Army soldiers are ruthless.

- The Nazis would ultimately get a taste

of their own medicine and what they did to the Russians.

And the Red Army is leaving behind a trail

of murder and destruction.

Even though Stalin ordered them to race to Berlin,

they are literally attacking,

killing men, women,

children, the elderly and burning the land,

killing farm animals. [bomb exploding]

A swathe of destruction is headed toward Berlin.

- As the Russians are coming through, civilians,

knowing, or hearing about what has happened elsewhere,

they want to get out.

- [Narrator] To keep Reich citizens out of Russian hands,

in January, 1945,

the Nazis launch Operation Hannibal.

[trucks rumbling]

This operation is called by some,

the greatest evacuation operation in history.

- Thousands and thousands of Germans, soldiers,

the wounded, civilians,

or just non-German residents of Eastern Europe

are all racing to the Baltic to try

to be evacuated before the Red Army strikes.

- So you get this extraordinary evacuation

of troops, of personnel,

of civilians, of prisoners.

It's like the great shift West.

- There was definitely a lot of discussions

in senior Nazi circles,

SS and also the party itself,

that they would create a last stand.

And in many ways you get the feeling

that this was done to please Hitler.

- I think in Goebbels' and Hitler's minds,

there were still people who cared.

And while there were some fanatics,

the vast majority of Germans accepted the reality

that they were doomed.

- So there was a rumor at the end of the war

that the Nazis were going to flee to make a one last stand,

a final readout.

[ominous rumbling music]

- [Narrator] After years of sitting

in the Port of Gotenhafen as a floating barracks

and a movie set,

the rusted out Cap Arcona is refitted to take

on a more active role.

The interior is stripped to make room for German refugees.

- Even though the ship was in disrepair and was rusting,

it's necessary to bring it into Operation Hannibal

because you need all hands on deck.

[waves swishing]

- It wasn't really from all accounts

a seaworthy vessel at that point.

But the fact that they needed to use it

or they felt they needed to use it,

speaks to the dire straits that they were in that they

didn't have a better option. [waves gushing]

- This is an incredibly dangerous undertaking because,

of course, the Baltic at this point with the advance

of the Russian armies means that Russian submarines

in particular are a threat.

Earlier on in Operation Hannibal,

a single ship was sunk by a submarine

and down went 10,000 lives.

So at any one of these moments,

it could've been sunk with the loss of huge numbers

of German civilians and German military personnel.

[waves swishing]

- [Narrator] So could this mean the Cap Arcona

was destroyed by a Russian submarine?

[ominous instrumental music]

After a relentless pursuit for answers

on what actually happened

to the Cap Arcona near the end of World War II,

finally, there's a breakthrough.

- I got the call,

"We found the document."

And there's 700 to 800 pages of classified documents

and it was sealed,

not to be opened until the year 2045

and they're going to make it available

and make the documents available to me.

"Would I like them?"

[Dr. Robert laughing]

After I picked myself off the floor, I'm like,

"Yeah, can I get on the next flight?"

- [Narrator] Back in the Baltic Sea,

the Cap Arcona has been successfully completing its missions

to take German refugees from Poland to Denmark,

managing to dodge any Russian submarines.

- Ultimately, it was the Cap Arcona's sophisticated design

that allows it to cross the Baltic and survive.

The ship was so fast.

It was so well built.

Its halls were reinforced.

So the Cap Arcona's design, still,

built in 1927 but by 1945 it's still ahead of its time.

- [Narrator] But while the Cap Arcona is

on a trip back to Copenhagen,

things are about to get worse.

- So with the Red Army taking over Poland by April of '45,

the Cap Arcona can no longer safely stay in port there.

It was the subject of this propaganda film.

It was Hitler's beloved ship.

It was the Nazi Titanic.

It has to flee or the Soviet Army would've arguably sunk it.

It's relocated to Germany,

to the German port.

- It's ironic, I think,

but probably just coincidental

that the Cap Arcona is sent back to German ports

in Neustadt Bay at the same time

that Himmler gives the order that all the camps,

the concentration camps are to be liquidated

and that no living inmate is to fall into allied hands.

That doesn't necessarily mean they're to be executed,

but of course some people,

some camp commandants and senior party officials may

have thought it did.

- [Narrator] Some commandants decide

to evacuate their camps and head for the Baltic Sea,

force-marching their prisoners.

- These death marches are just horrific.

Some of the survivors of it described tripping

over all the bodies that had fallen in front of them

from the front of the line,

if they're in the back of the line.

So you have these long snaking trails of death,

leading to the Baltic Coast.

[paper rustling] [ominous rumbling music]

- [Narrator] The death march's destination is Lubeck Bay.

Unbeknownst to the prisoners,

they're marching towards the Cap Arcona.

- So I remember when I got all these documents,

now the hard work begins.

I've got hundreds and hundreds of pages of stuff

and I gotta make sense out of it,

and it was just haphazardly put together.

So the first thing I did was I tried

to organize it chronologically,

then organize it by topic.

I cleared everything off the floor and then I just got piles

and I put it in piles and I made lines to everything,

hour-by-hour, day-by-day.

And I organized everything chronologically,

then I marked everything chronologically.

After that, then I organized it by topic,

by event, or by individual.

- [Narrator] On April 17th, 1945,

thousands of death march survivors arrive in Lubeck Bay.

- So those who are able to make it,

they start to load in.

They start to aboard the Cap Arcona and the other ships.

And you wonder what they were thinking in that moment,

having gone through what they went through

and just the uncertainty that I'm sure they were facing,

the fear that must have been present.

[typewriter clickety-clacking]

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, the British

receive intelligence reports

that multiple large Kriegsmarine ships are congregating

in German waters along the Baltic Coast.

Trying to finish off the war,

they begin plans for an attack to ensure there is no chance

of the Nazis escaping by ship to make a last stand.

- There are four big ships in Lubeck Bay,

near the Port of Neustadt.

There's two freighters, trawlers,

the Thielbek and the Athen,

and there's two big ocean liners,

the Deutschland and the Cap Arcona.

Around this time there's the rumor

that the Germans are going to flee to Norway

for one last stand.

- The allies were using a lot of reconnaissance,

aerial reconnaissance, taking pictures from above,

and they wouldn't necessarily have had the details

to see who was on the ship,

who was being loaded on those ships,

but they would see how many,

and they would be able to see that the ships were lower

and lower in the water as they were loaded up

with more people.

So you could tell when the ship is empty.

You could tell when the ship is full.

You could tell when the ship is over full.

And that's the information that they,

you know, when they say believe your eyes,

that's what they're seeing,

but it doesn't have the level of detail

that lets them know exactly what's going on in there.

- And you have to go into war knowing the only way

to win it is to annihilate the enemy.

[ominous rumbling music]

- [Narrator] On April, 26th,

the SS commandeers the Cap Arcona

and the other ships in Lubeck Bay,

officially turning them into floating concentration camps.

The guards occupy the luxurious suites on the upper decks,

while the prisoners are put below.

- So in late April and early May of 1945,

the final days,

the final hours of the war,

you have all these prisoners at the port,

you have this massive Titanic ship at anchor off the coast,

and there's this macabre scene where every hour

or two they're shuttling prisoners out to the Cap Arcona

and stuffing them in the deep,

dark holds of the ship,

no food, no water.

- [Narrator] The Swedish Red Cross obtains information

that the RAF are plotting an airstrike

in the Port of Lubeck.

Knowing this will mean certain death

for the concentration camp survivors aboard the Cap Arcona

and the other ships,

they try to warn the RAF to call off the attack.

- So because the information isn't passed on

or it is passed on and it's ignored,

an attack is put in against these vessels in Neustadt Bay.

- Once the RAF goes forth with the airstrike,

there's nothing that those onboard the ships can do.

- At 05:30 in the morning, [airplane engines rumbling]

six squadrons of Typhoon Bombers took off

from liberated air bases across Europe.

Their target was Lubeck Bay.

In particular, the target is any large ship.

They fly in that morning.

It's cloudy, it's rainy,

it's overcast, the worst kind of weather.

They can't see.

They've return to base.

They have to refuel and wait for the clouds to dissipate.

At around 2:30 in the afternoon they fly back in.

It's still cloudy and rainy but not as bad.

They drop down below the clouds and what do they see,

the largest ship anybody's ever seen,

the Cap Arcona.

She's low in the water which means she's full of people

and full of fuel.

So the six squadrons

of Typhoon Bombers all target the Cap Arcona.

[airplane engines roaring]

[bombs exploding] - The British pilots

commence a devastating air attack on Lubeck Bay,

[rapid gunfire exploding] unleashing a total

of 64 rockets and 15 bombs onto the Cap Arcona

and surrounding ships.

- They were going out with the mission

that they were taking out a military target.

They had no idea anything else was happening there.

- If you're the Royal Air Force,

the last thing you want is for this war to continue.

This is the world's bloodiest war,

60 to 80 million people around the world, dead.

They want to do anything and everything they can

to prevent these ships from getting to Norway.

So these Typhoon Bombers,

these Royal Air Force Typhoon Bombers are going to hunt

and target every large ship they can find

off the German coast.

[rapid gunfire exploding]

- [Narrator] With the pilots facing little

to no resistance or return fire,

they dominate the sky above Lubeck Bay,

while down below a hellish nightmare is unfolding

for all those aboard the ships.

- They target the Cap Arcona.

Gaping holes are torn into the ship

from all the explosions.

Freezing cold water fills the ship.

So if you're below the water line,

you have no chance.

Those on the top decks,

as the ship starts to list and roll over,

the big funnels,

the smokestacks are breaking off

and like a giant bowling ball, crushing people.

- I can't imagine what it'd be like being on

that ship after it was struck with bombs and it's on fire.

[fire roaring]

- There were some survivors of this horrific incident.

It's hard to put an exact number on it.

I estimate maybe as many as 350.

One of them was a young boy named Barek Jakóbowicz.

He was Polish as the name would suggest.

He survived concentration camps,

the death march and days in a deep hold of the ship.

He was there with his brother, Josek.

When a gaping hole was torn into the side of the ship,

freezing cold water came pouring in.

Almost everybody inside was either dead or died, drowned,

because you're in no condition to swim.

These two young boys managed to tread water.

At the last minute,

some of the concentration camp prisoners

from the top deck bravely risked their lives

to go below decks on a ship that's on fire and rolling over

and is still being bombed,

they went below decks and opened the hatch

and hands came down

and pulled the two Jakóbowicz brothers out.

[airplane engines roaring]

- [Narrator] As the British airstrikes continued

to target the Cap Arcona,

Nazi units are patrolling the beaches,

searching for any surviving prisoners that may

have made it to shore. [rapid gunfire exploding]

Tragically, hundreds of prisoners

that survive the terrible nightmare on the Cap Arcona

are gunned down on land. [bomb exploding]

- What makes this ever more pitiful is the end

of the war is literally a day or two away.

- The British Sixth Commando and others

who liberated the port and their general,

a fellow named Mills-Roberts,

as well as Major Till who was ordered to document all this,

realized what had happened,

that thousands and thousands of concentration camp prisoners

were killed mistakenly by the Royal Air Force.

And that was the reasoning behind requesting

that all these documents be sealed top secret

for a hundred years.

And I'm not defending that,

but in some ways you think about this,

after the war ends,

the public was in no mood for more stories

of death and loss.

They wanted to move forward with their lives.

They needed to rebuild. [crowd cheering]

And nobody wanted to look back,

especially at a tragedy of this magnitude.

So the British were able to successfully classify

and seal these documents away from public information

and from prying eyes for decades.

- [Dr. Arne] From an allied perspective,

on the cusp of victory,

you need to deliver your public an untarnished victory.

- It's such a desperate scramble

to get back into a peaceful world and to curate a better,

healthier, happier narrative,

that almost there isn't the scrutiny there needs

to be over what we can and can't read.

- [Narrator] The Cap Arcona remains capsized

in Lubeck Bay until 1949 when the Soviets bring it

on land to salvage.

Today, there is nothing that remains of the Cap Arcona.

One of the largest ships ever built has completely vanished.

[somber instrumental music]

But after decades of being buried,

her story is finally out in the open.

- Uncovering this story is probably the most important

thing professionally I think I've ever done.

I've spent years with this story now,

from researching it,

to writing it,

to talking about it,

to working on this project here.

And after all these years,

I still have trouble almost believing that any of it's real.

It's so surreal.

It's so bizarre and fantastical.

But when it comes to Nazi Germany,

when it comes to ideas that people like Hitler

and Goebbels had,

nothing is too bizarre.

- It's important that history shines a light

on all these sorts of stories so that we're honest

with ourselves as a nation about what we've done in the past

and what we're capable of doing.

- [Dr. Mazyar] In this case,

we're not only supposed to learn from it,

but also to remember it and to understand

what's happened and to do better.

- I hate everything to do with war,

but pretending like it doesn't happen

and not respecting the lives lost,

the sacrifices made,

the innocents that are killed.

- I felt a real heavy sense of responsibility

that I had to tell this story.

There was no way I wasn't.

I was going to,

I would get in the Atlantic and swim

[Dr. Robert chuckling] across the ocean

to unearth whatever it could be.

And I still feel

a sense of responsibility,

even now just talking about this,

because it's such a heavy and just a shocking

and important story.

[somber motivational instrumental music]