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On December 3 , 1928 , a Seaplane crashed near ''Cap Arcona'' as it approached Rio De Janeiro , Brazil . The plane carried a dozen Brazilian scientists who were planning to pay a flying welcome to Alberto Santos-Dumont ; the Aviation Pioneer was returning to Brazil aboard the vessel at the time. In 1940 , ''Cap Arcona'' was taken over by the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) and used in the Baltic Sea . At the end of 1944 , the Kriegsmarine transferred the ship back to transport use and it was used to transport refugees from East Prussia to western Germany. The liner also had a brief stint in the world of cinema. in 1942 , the ship was used as a stand in for the doomed '' Titanic '' in the German Film Version Of The Disaster . Three years later, this would prove to have been a cruel twist of Irony . A WORLDWIDE TRAGEDY On April 26 , 1945 , ''Cap Arcona'' was loaded with prisoners from the Neuengamme Concentration Camp near Hamburg and together with two smaller ships, '' Thielbek '' and '' Athen '', was brought into the Bay Of Lübeck with the intention of destroying evidence of what had happened at Neuengamme by scuttling the ships with the prisoners imprisoned below. During these days, informed by British Intelligence , Count Folke Bernadotte , vice-president of Red Cross gained much good will leading a rescue operation transporting West- European s Deportee s to hospitals in Sweden , of whom some speaking French from the Cap Arcona . Four days after based in Hustedt , the second by 198 Squadron based in Plantlünne , led by Group Captain Johnny Baldwin , the third by 263 Squadron based in Ahlhorn and the fourth by Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoon s of 197 Squadron based in Ahlhorn , using Rocket s, Bombs , and Machine-gun s. The ships were carrying from 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners from the German concentration camps in Neuengamme , Stutthof and Mittelbau-Dora , half of whom were Russian and Polish POW s, others from 24 nationalities, French , Danish , Dutch , ... Those reaching the shore after the sinkings were shot by the SS , but about 350 managed to escape the Massacre . With the similar sinkings of '' Wilhelm Gustloff '' and '' Goya '' in the Baltic Sea , these were three of the highest losses of life of any sinking in history. REFERENCES
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