Fleeing guilt

Most people know about the Titanic, and many have heard about the Lusitania, but how many have heard about the Wilhelm Gustloff? Yet the latter was the most tragic sinking in history, with more than 9,000 people losing their lives in the icy waters of the Baltic Sea. These were not Americans or British, but rather mostly refugees fleeing Russian troops at the close of World War II.

Ruta Sepetys, whose father's cousins were among those who died when a Russian submarine sank the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945, tries to correct this neglect in her award-winning 2016 novel Salt to the Sea.

Her story is told in the words of several young refugees, each hiding a secret as they try to flee Germany. The main characters include Emilia, a pregnant Polish teenager; Florian, a Prussian who escaped military service thanks to artistic skills that made him invaluable in working with art stolen by the Nazis; Joanna, a lovely Lithuanian nurse; and Alfred, a young German sailor who likes to pretend he's a hero.

Sepetys keeps the chapters brief, sometimes just a page each, which makes the action fast. This is good, for it takes most of the novel for them to reach and board the ship. Getting to know these characters helps the reader better appreciate what happens after the torpedoes strike.

Her characters are all fleeing their own personal guilt as much as they are fleeing the Russians. In war there is more than enough guilt for all, and the tragic sinking of this ship dwarfs the rest. Perhaps this is the reason the Wilhelm Gustloff has been mostly forgotten. It is a guilty secret people would like to forget.