Ernst Schneider

Ernst Schneider was one of at least 15 Jehovah’s Witnesses who survived the British fighter-bomber attack on the ships “Cap Arcona,” “Thielbek,” and “Deutschland” in Neustadt Bay on May 3, 1945. As a young man “fit for military service,” he had quickly come into direct conflict with the Nazi regime at the start of the war.

“The Bible says, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ and for that reason, becoming a soldier was out of the question for me,” he explained to his superiors at the Rohde und Dörrenberg company in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel in October 1939, when they asked him to join the DAF (German Labor Front).1

Schneider was born on March 28, 1911, in Düsseldorf, attended the Cologne University of Music, composed his own pieces of music, and was employed by the Düsseldorf City Orchestra during the 1937–38 season. His instrument was the bassoon. Since 1932, he had attended public lectures by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and, despite the ban on the religious community in Prussia in June 1933, continued to profess their principles of faith—which include the equality of all people, political neutrality, and the Christian commandment of love for one’s neighbor.

In 1938, four of his colleagues in the symphony orchestra reported him to the State Cultural Administrator and State Director of Music in the Düsseldorf Gau, claiming that, due to his religious convictions,

“refused to give the German salute [sic!]” and “did not consider it necessary to rise from his seat during the German national anthem.”2

The Gestapo arrested and interrogated him, but the public prosecutor’s office did not press charges due to lack of evidence.

“I am only striving to act in accordance with the truths of the Bible,” he explained during the Gestapo interrogation.3

Shortly thereafter, the Reich Music Chamber in Berlin became involved. Schneider lost his position in the orchestra and had to earn a living as a machine operator and construction laborer.

The police doctor confirmed that Ernst Schneider was “fit for work and camp life.” The Gestapo then transferred him to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where, like many Jehovah’s Witnesses, he was sent directly to the “punishment company” with prisoner number 6078.5 This meant hard labor at a running pace, even on Sundays, with food deprivation and severe abuse by the SS. The Gestapo file meticulously documents the regular protective custody review dates between January 1940 and February 1944.

Ernst Schneider may have arrived at the Neuengamme concentration camp between March 1 and June 1940.6 There he was assigned prisoner number 793.7

It was extremely rare for the Gestapo to attempt to transfer concentration camp prisoners to the Wehrmacht, as in the case of Ernst Schneider in 1941. The rationale: “In the event of continued defiant behavior, action would be taken against him under military criminal law.”8 A futile endeavor that was not carried out. For most of the Jehovah’s Witnesses imprisoned in concentration camps uncompromisingly refused any participation in the war, as well as work for the Wehrmacht or in the arms industry.9

When the evacuation of the Neuengamme concentration camp began on April 20, 1945, Schneider was loaded into a filthy freight car at night along with 22 other Jehovah’s Witnesses as part of a small group of 50 prisoners under SS guard and transported toward Lübeck. Upon their arrival, the prisoners were first crammed into the cargo holds of the Thielbek:

“[It was] impossible […] to stand there untouched for even a moment. Lying down was completely impossible. […] a stench, not a ray of light,” he later wrote in his diary. 10

After 7 or 8 days, the prisoners were loaded onto the ship Athen to be taken to the Cap Arcona. Schneider described how, on the luxury liner, usually 10 prisoners had to share a two-person cabin. The only food was turnip water, and in the evening, a thin slice of bread with a pat of butter.

Around 3:00 p.m. on the afternoon of May 3, Ernst Schneider was in the large dining room with his friend Willi when the ship suddenly shook. They saw a white flag on the Thielbek. He immediately ran to join his fellow believers in the cabins.

“I suddenly saw English planes through the porthole, flying low directly toward the Cap Arcona. […] Bombs fell, there was a terrible crash. One salvo after another. We feared a boiler explosion. The hallways were filled with thick smoke. You couldn’t breathe anymore. People were running around helplessly in front of all the cabins.”

The guards ordered the prisoners to go back to their cabins.

“Now the ship was listing even more. You could no longer walk upright in the corridors. Fire! The ship is on fire.”

He fought his way up to the deck and saw “huge flames coming out of the cargo hatch.”

“It was probably about 8 meters from [the] railing to the waterline. Many jumped into the water, with and without life jackets, and tried to chain themselves to the rescue ships coming from land. However, during this attempt […] many froze in the cold water. Nor did the lifeboats come any closer to us. The planes circled over our ship.”

Hundreds of prisoners, standing pressed tightly together on the foredeck, “waved their handkerchiefs or rags toward the planes […] and now the white [sic!] flag could be seen on our ship. But unfortunately, it was too late. Now one could also observe how the ship […] was bombed by Germany and, after a few minutes, was ablaze. And the Thielbek sank within 30 minutes. Our [faith] brothers were also on both ships.”

After about 2 hours, “the ship quickly capsized. And we were thrown into the water one after the other, even though we tried to hold on to each other. […] One clung to the other.”

Ernst Schneider swam back to the ship, which was red-hot and, by his estimate, still protruded about 7 meters above the water, and was able to hold on for a while in one spot together with his friend Karl.

“The guards who were on the sinking ship [fired] at defenseless prisoners trying to save themselves,” documented Ernst Schneider.

Alfred Knegendorf, a fellow believer and sailor, pulled him and about 20 other prisoners up onto the ship’s iron hull using a rope. For many hours, several hundred people now waited on the capsized keel of the Cap Arcona. Even in this desperate situation, Ernst Schneider encouraged two Russian fellow prisoners and told them about the message of hope in the Bible. 12 Rescue did not come until around 10 p.m.

“Meanwhile, a lifeboat pulled up and took about 300 to 310 survivors ashore. A marine was kind enough to give me his own military coat, […] because I was very cold.”

British soldiers took the survivors to a barracks.

Since 2015, the story of Ernst Schneider has been featured on an informational display at the Düsseldorf Memorial and Remembrance Center as part of the permanent exhibition “Children and Young People in Düsseldorf under National Socialism.” (The Memorial – Friends of the Düsseldorf Memorial and Remembrance Center, Inc.)