HELMUT SCHMOECKEL (1455-1990)

Kriegsmarine, U-Bootwaffe, Skipper of U-802

HELMUT SCHMOECKEL ran into problems early on – because he was half Jewish, he was put into concentration camp Dachau. When Admiral Karl Dönitz learned of this, he arrived with a squad of Kriegsmarine personnel, took SCHMOECKELout of the camp and informed those in charge that they will not again take any of his U-Bootfahrer into camps.

While his career in the U-Bootwaffe was not as historically large as that of Skippers like OTTO KRETSCHMER(122-1985) or ERICH TOPP(118-1985), SCHMOECKEL took his boat to sea and made his patrols like all the others but unlike so many other Skippers, he brought his boat and his men home after each Feindfahrt (war patrol).

Some years after the war he wrote a book whose title translates to “Humanity on the High Seas” but thus far, this book has not been translated from the original German and is out of print.