Cap Arcona

The Cap Arcona portal is aimed at anyone who would like to find out more about the tragic events of 3 May 1945 in the Bay of Lübeck. The focus is not only on the events surrounding the ‘Cap Arcona disaster’, but also on the crimes committed by the SS, German soldiers and police against concentration camp prisoners at the end of the war, as well as the extended post-war and memorial history.

Your platform for information and reminders

The portal offers:

• "Discover": an orientation timeline, multimedia stories and moving life stories
• “Remember”: an interactive map that leads to cemeteries, memorials, stumbling blocks and other places of remembrance in the Baltic Sea region
• "Deepen": detailed texts, extensive material, a media collection and a personal database.

The portal is currently under construction. It is being developed by the town of Neustadt in Holstein in co-operation with the Cap-Arcona-Gedenken Network. It is being created alongside the Cap Arcona Documentation Centre, which the city of Neustadt in Holstein is building in the city centre next to the zeiTTor Museum by 2028.

Here you will find further explanations of what we are looking for:

Articles

The articles should deal with the so-called Cap Arcona disaster and the crimes committed in Neustadt in Holstein at the end of the war on 2 and 3 May 1945 - both in the narrower and broader sense. Possible topics include

• Historical context:
  Causes of the catastrophe, such as prisoner societies, the concentration camp system, death marches, sea evacuations, Nazi and Allied warfare

• Immediate and lasting consequences:
  British occupation, displaced persons camps, reactions of the population, criminal investigations

• Culture of remembrance and commemoration:
  Cemeteries and memorial sites, remembrance in East and West, continuities and changes in the culture of remembrance to the present day

  Length: approx. 5,000-10,000 characters including spaces, supplemented by illustrations.
  Sample article see here.

Biographies

We are also looking for biographical contributions on people who have a direct or indirect connection with the events of 2/3 May 1945. These include, for example:

• Victims and survivors of the Cap Arcona disaster and the maritime death march from Stutthof concentration camp
• Perpetrators and responsible parties
• Ship personnel
• Bystanders, local residents or contemporary witnesses
• Residents, employees and neighbours of the later DP camp
• British occupying soldiers or similar parties
• People who were involved in the culture of remembrance or played a role in the aftermath of the events

Length: approx. 5,000-10,000 characters including spaces, supplemented by illustrations.
Example biography see here.

Before you get started - please contact us

If you would like to write an article, please contact the editorial team in advance. This way we can avoid overlaps and support you if necessary.
A fee or expense allowance is possible by arrangement if you are unable to contribute on a voluntary basis.

The editor responsible for the Cap Arcona Portal is the Mayor of Neustadt in Holstein.

All texts on the Cap Arcona portal are checked by a specialised editorial team and only published once they have been approved. 

The members of the editorial team:

• Dr Angelika Königseder, historian, Centre for Research on Anti-Semitism, Technical University of Berlin
• Dr Reimer Möller, historian, former archive director of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg
• Stefan Nies, historian, curator of the Cap Arcona Documentation Centre, City of Neustadt in Holstein
• Dr. Harald Schmid, historian, research assistant at the Schleswig-Holstein Memorials Community Foundation
• Alexander Rehwaldt, Head of the Office for Culture, Education and Social Affairs of the Grevesmühlen Administrative Community and Grevesmühlen-Land Office
• Julia Werner, historian, curator of the Cap Arcona Documentation Centre, City of Neustadt in Holstein

Contact: caparcona@stadt-neustadt.de