The Hansa Way
OUTLINE
Spring of 1945: The German army, Scorched earth Northern Finland during their retreat to Norway, leaving a desolated land behind. Agnes, pregnant from German Navy sailor, is now an outcast in her home country. In hopes of finding her lost lover, she sets sail on a journey with her new born daughter, hopping from fishing trawlers to reallocated U-Boats and cargo ships along the Hansa route leading her from Helsinki to Danzig. She is finally evacuated to Lübeck along with thousands of ethic Germans expelled from Soviet controlled Poland.
HESLSINKI, HOSPITAL, APRIL 25, 1945
Agnes is delivering her baby daughter as the radio announces that the German Army has retreated to Norway. Amidst the celebration that follows, she is being pressured by her family not to divulge the identity of the baby's father. Not wanting to bear such a burden on her daughter and yearning to find her lover upon hearing about Hitler's death a few days later, she talks to Red Cross personnel stationed at the hospital who assist her in tracking the father's family in Danzig. In the disarray that follows the German capitulation and with no way to communicate via mail or telegraph, she embarks on a fishing boat hoping to reach Soviet controlled Estonia.
Agnes heard about the massive evacuation of German troops and civilians from the Baltic countries. Only experiences fishermen can navigate the dangerous waters along the "mine net" laid between Helsinki and Tallinn.
Agnes boards a Estonian
BALTIC SEA, 20 NAUTICAL MILES FROM TALLINN, MAY 4, 1945, DAWN
The Baltic Sea is eerily quiet on this second week of peace. A fisherman alone on deck scouts the foggy horizon. Hearing the sound of voices, he looks towards the cabin to make sure is isn't being called but the trawler's captain is sleeping at the helm and there is no other souls on deck. Hearing new calls, he is befuddled when a surfaced submarine appears through the fog meters away from his slowly sailing boat. On deck, several desperate sailors call for help in German and various Baltic languages.
Confused, the fisherman takes a few seconds to realize that the war is over then tells the sailors to hold on as he calls his captain twice before he could wake him up. Hearing the commotion, Agnes climbs on deck holding baby Anna in her arms. Two other fishermen are now on decks trowing ropes at the U-boat as more German seamen come out through the submarine's fin.
The captain of the Finnish trawler is baffled when the very young captain of the U-boat jumps on his rusty fishing boat and respectfully surrender's the Type XXI Elektroboote warship.
-On behalf of the German Navy, I captain XXX, surrenders my ship and its crew to the Republic of Finland.
The Finnish captain doesn't quite grasp the extend of the U-Boat's captain's words and asks his crewmen if they understand. Agnes steps forward still holding sleeping Anna.
-I think he is asking you to take his ship...
-Take it where? We don't have the power to tow a U-Boat!
-No, he means he want's you to represent Finland and take possession of the ship.
The Finnish captain looks up at 75 meter long warship floating a black flag.
-But we're fisherman!
The U-Boat captain smiles at Agnes petting Anna's head.
-You speak German right?
-Yes, my daughter's father is a German sailor. He was stationed in Helsinki last summer but I've lost trace of him. Can you please help us find him. h The U-Boat captain is surprised by the unexpected turn of events and tries to re-organize the situation.
-Yes, we could try... But could you please help me translate my plea to the captain of this ship.
-Yes, of course.
-Tell him that we would rather surrender our ship to Finland than be captured by the Russians.
Agnes translates and the Finnish captain replies that from what he knows, Finland hasn't signed peace with the Russians and that he doesn't see how he could repossess the German ship, let alone tow it back to Helsinki without being sank by the Soviet Navy. The U-Boat captain looks at Agnes still trying find a way to handle the situation while German sailors who boarded the trawler eye the nets filled with hundred of fresh herrings. Agnes pulls a photo from a wallet hidden in her jacket's inner pocket and shows it to the German's captain.
-His name is Günter, Günter Rasen. He was seventeen last summer. Maybe eighteen now...
The U-boat captain looks at the photo as daylight slowly clears the fog over the Baltic Sea.
-No sorry...
Then he passes it to another officer besides him.
-Can you pass this photo around, ask if a crewman knows him...
He looks at Anna and asks Agnes.
-What's her name?
-Anna, replies Agnes... Anna.
As the day rises, the German U-Boat officers are anxious to submerge their ship to avoid Soviet Navy and Air Force detection. Agnes manages to remain on board as the Finnish trawler accepts to transport two German officers to Tallinn to find battery fluids, necessary to cruise submerged.
TALLINN
U-boat seized and reallocated to Baltic Fleet to Danzig.
U-3955 is seized by the Soviet Navy and sailed back to Danzig by its captured German crew under Soviet command and escort to be refitted and reallocated to the Baltic Fleet. Agnes and Anna remain clandestine passengers.
DANZIG
Following its liberation by the Red Army, the city is in disarray and prone to "ethnic cleansing". Agnes finds her lover's family home repossessed by displaced Poles. Claiming the German citizenship of her daughter, she takes part in a massive exodus of Ethnic Germans towards the west.
Agnes talks to a rat...
LUBECK
Agnes and Anna take shelter in a house bordering the British and Soviet zones where Anna was raised.
Anna is raised on the Inner German Border by her single mom mother.