Crabwalk

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Crabwalk (from the German novel Im Krebsgang) (2002), by Danzig-born German author Günter Grass (who had earlier received the 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature). It is based on the story of the World War II maritime disaster, the sinking of the overloaded Nazi cruise ship turned refugee carrier, the KdF Ship Wilhelm Gustloff, and its effect on three generations of a German family. In the book, narrated by Paul Pokriefke, a failed journalist born at the time of the incident, a German family struggles to cope with the implications of the disaster.

The title, Crabwalk, defined by Grass as "scuttling backward to move forward," refers to both the necessary reference to various events, some occurring at the same time, the same events that would lead to the eventual disaster. Crabwalk might also imply a more abstract backward glance at history, in order to allow a people to move forward.

Approximately 9000 people perished in the attack on the Wilhelm Gustloff, making it the worst maritime disaster of all time. The vessel was torpedoed by a Russian submarine in the Baltic Sea at the end of January 1945. The narrator commences with the story of Wilhelm Gustloff, the German leader of the Swiss NSDAP (Nazi) party after whom the ship would later be named, and his assassin, David Frankfurter, a Jewish medical student. Simultaneously the Russian submarine commander, Alexander Marinesko, gives the order to attack the ship.