Hitler's Lost State

This WWII history chronicles the rise and fall of Nazi Prussia as well as the ill-fated exodus of its civilian refugees in 1945.

Seen as an agricultural utopia within Hitler’s Germany, Prussia is thought to have gone untouched during the Second World War. Yet the violence of the National Socialist regime was widespread throughout the German state.

As the Red Army advanced on its borders in 1945, nearly ten thousand civilians evacuated the region aboard the MV Wilhelm Gustloff—only to perish when the ship was sunk by a Soviet submarine. It was the worst loss of life in maritime history, six times greater than that of the RMS Titanic.

Combining existing material and new findings, this book tells the story of Prussia’s rise and fall as a military power. It chronicles the attempts made by brave civilians and military personnel to overturn the Nazi regime, as well as the desperate evacuation of refugees in one of the greatest exoduses ever seen, told by those who were there.