Why write about "Operation Hannibal?"

Why write about “Operation Hannibal" indeed!!! In terms of sheer size, Operation Hannibal was (and continues to be) the largest sea-evacuation in history. Operating from January 23rd to May 9th, 1945, the German Navy and merchant fleet rescued between 2 and 2.5 million people from the advancing Soviets. My mother MeeMee was on one of those ships.

Oddly enough, while MeeMee was going west, my my mother-in-law Frida was heading east. Frida escaped from the Nazi invasion of Poland, first into Latvia and then deeper into the U.S.S.R. MeeMee went the other way, leaving Riga Latvia on October 2nd just ahead of the advancing Red Army. My mother first arrived in Memel (Klaipėda in Lithuania), the same day the Soviets surrounded the city. She escaped down the Curonian spit about a week later, and after moving through the Prussian capital of Königsberg, was settled in a refugee camp a little to the south and west of the city. After spending about four months in the camp, MeeMee and her surviving family members were able to get to Pillau just ahead of another Red Army attack. They then boarded one of the ships of the great evacuation. After a sea transfer to a larger vessel, she was carried to safety in Denmark in mid-April. This basic outline of her journey is just that. There were so many escapes and close calls that they would seem practically unbelievable in a Hollywood film. As I wrote in my last blog entry, I had been hearing about my mother’s stories of the war since I was a child. However while these stories were always compelling, never having put them all together at once, I was unable to fully realize just how fortunate she had been to escape from the Eastern Front. Over the last few years, while I have put together the story of her journey, I have come to realize that there is not one English book that focuses its research on the evacuation. There are quite a few German books, but outside of Kieser’s Prussian Apocalypse, Koburger’s Steel Ships, Iron Crosses and Refugees, and Buttar’s extraordinary work Battleground Prussia, there is little mention of Operation Hannibal in most histories covering the war’s end. My mission is to share MeeMee’s story and fill that gap in our historical knowledge. I hope you will come on the journey with me!!!