I thought i would call attention to this, as it is its anniversary, and the incident and staggering loss of prisoner life is barely known. Especially tragic in literally at the end of WW II in Europe, even after fall of Berlin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Cap_Arcona
I have delved into it a bit, so just to add a few details that come from examining some of the sources, photos and even the ship plans that articles on the Internet do not point out.
Of the ships in Luebeck Bay mentioned in the drama linked, the three-stack German liner Cap Arcona is anchored with its port side facing the Neustadt shore, bow pointed roughly out to sea. The one-stack freighter Thielbek is a few hundred yards astern, but at right angles, starboard side facing Cap Arcona. The two-stack liner Deutschland is further away, and the one-stack Athen is at the dock in Neustadt.
When British Typhoons rocket-equipped fighters hit the ships in two main waves starting about 2:30 pm the Thielbek sank first after about 20 minutes, bodily plunging sideways down on its starboard side where only the tip of the side of the stack and some masts were above water. This left almost no place for survivors to cling to in the cold water, and that is why more than 2,000 with barely 50 survive.
The Cap Arcona is set furiously afire, the SS are on top deck, and shoot or drive back down below any prisoners trying to escape. However, they are also busy trying to save their skins, and soon bail out, taking the few boats that are available to rescue (holes had been punched in many of them). By the time the second wave attacks, the PoWs and even the crew (which tries to help the PoWs in many cases) are on their own and having to get out somehow. Those trapped below have it worst as usual, as there were two main stair-cases going deep down into the ship located either side of the middle stack. (The third stack was a dummy over the engine room). Unless able to make you way up through these burning paths and corridors, there was little way out.
About 4pm the burning Cap Arcona suddenly lurches over and capsizes onto her port side (that is, tumbled down nearly 90 degree angle--- it doesn't here mean "bottom up"). Since the water depth is less than the width of the ship, the whole starboard side remains and would remain above the water. However the fires are burning so hotly photos show the promenade deck windows and frames actually warped and melted, and the survivors talking about burning their feet trying to stay on the hull or running along it takes on new meaning. The conditions between fire and sea are horrific, and many those that get to shore are massacred even with British army columns just arriving, not quite in time. Some 8,000-10,000 perish.
Technically Cap Arcona never "sinks" out of sight like the other two (the Deutschland also goes down close to 6pm) but the side remains out of the water post-war, until scrapped in 1950.
There remains controversy whether they were going to be deliberately sunk with all aboard in the original SS plan, but that seems to be the idea. Whether U-boats at that late date (Hitler was known to be dead) would have agreed to torpedo them is another matter. One other item is it is sometimes said Cap Arcona could not steam any more. That is not quite right --- her turbines were crippled and overworked, but she had steamed to Lubeck Bay and probably could have gone somewhere else on a short voyage for an exchange if that is what it was really about. Opinions are still debated if it was a Himmler scheme or not, or just another way to get all witnesses killed.