Wilhelm Gustloff was the first cruise ship to be built for the German workers organisation, DAF. She was a single-class ship and the crew accommodation was to the same standard as the passenger cabinsbut the ship was slow by the standards of passenger lliners. Holidays were organised by the state run KdF organisation, KdF and this ship was managed by the Hamburg-America Line. The first season in service was interrupted by a sailing to Spain in company with other KdK ships to bring the Condor Legion of German troops back from assisting Gerneral Franco of Spain to gain victory in the Spanish Civil War and in August of 1939 she was called up again, this time to act as a hospital ship for the Occupation of Poland which started WW2 in Europe and from 1941 she was used as an accommodation ship and troop transport. In January 1945 when evacuating troops and refugees from the Baltic States to Germany and Denmark, she was torpedoed by the Russian submarine S13 and sank with the loss of over ten thousand lives.