SS Donau (1929)
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| History | |
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| Name: | Donau |
| Namesake: | River Danube |
| Operator: | Norddeutscher Lloyd (1929-39); Kriegsmarine (1939-45) |
| Port of registry: | Bremen |
| Builder: | Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG Werk Vulcan, Hamburg |
| Identification: |
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| Fate: | Sunk by limpet mines in 1945, raised and scrapped 1952 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Cargo ship |
| Tonnage: | 9035 GRT; 5642 net tonnage |
| Length: | 521.0 ft (158.8 m) |
| Beam: | 63.5 ft (19.4 m) |
| Draught: | 31.0 ft (9.4 m) |
| Installed power: | 1000 NHP |
| Propulsion: | triple expansion steam engine and low-pressure steam turbine; screw |
| Armament: | anti-aircraft guns; depth charges (during Second World War) |
SS Donau was a Norddeutscher Lloyd refrigerated cargo ship. In the Second World War the Kriegsmarine used it as a transport ship between Germany and Norway. She became known as the "slave ship" after the SS and Gestapo transported 540 Jews from Norway to Stettin, from where they were taken by train to Auschwitz. Only nine of those deported on the Donau survived.
Donau was built in Hamburg for Norddeutscher Lloyd of Bremen and completed in 1929. At 9,035 long tons (9,180 t) gross she was large for her time, and she was unusual amongst cargo ships for being powered by both a triple expansion steam engine and a steam turbine.
Donau was requisitioned for war service under the command of Kriegsmarine-Dienststelle Hamburg and equipped with anti-aircraft weaponry and depth charges. She was put into service transporting troops from the Eastern Front via Stettin to Oslo and back.
On 26 November 1942 Norwegian police forces under the direction of the Gestapo handed 532 Jewish prisoners to the SS at Pier 1 in Oslo harbor. The ship was under the command of Untersturmführer Klaus Grossmann and Oberleutnant Manig. Men and women were put in separate holds on the ship, where they were deprived of basic sanitary conditions and mistreated by the soldiers. Only 9 of the prisoners survived the Second World War.
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