Trigger
Recently, I came across this article in the Weekly Standard titled “The Lost Cause/A reporter remembers the agony of South Vietnam” about a German journalist covering the Vietnam War on the ground. A German journalist? I was immediately intrigued.
German Hospital Ship Helgoland
I have never heard of it. Must be the government run public education that I received. I quote from the article: “He also writes admiringly of the German doctors and nurses who courageously staffed the West German hospital ship Helgoland, in the face of relentless Vietcong attempts to destroy it, far up north near Da Nang.”. Unfortunately, the article does not say more about this German hospital ship.
After a bit of research I came up with these websites:
The latter article is published by the Deutsche Welle, the German government radio station like Radio Free Europe etc. or according to the About on their website: “Germany's international broadcaster”.
Quotes from these two articles (emphasis added):
- “the German hospital ship "Helgoland," where civilians from both sides were treated. For many Vietnamese, it was the last resort. ”
- “In a rush, the German Red Cross had converted the boat into a hospital ship, as ordered by the German government. … there were ten doctors and 30 nurses on board from the German Red Cross. Some 150 beds and three operating rooms were set up along the boat's 92 meters (300 feet). There was even a proper laboratory.”
- “The "Helgoland" reached the South Vietnamese capital Saigon in September 1966, protected by mine-detection ships. But the doctors and nurses were not prepared for the horrors that were awaiting them. When the first wounded civilians were brought on board, the German medics were shocked. "We just cried," one nurse said. The final harbor for the "Helgoland" in Vietnam was the city of Da Nang, close to the war. Only civilians were treated on board, no soldiers. Since the boat was under protection of the Geneva Conventions, it was considered strictly neutral. … The floating hospital was the most modern clinic in all of Vietnam. … Word got around quickly that the German ship spelled salvation for the ill and wounded. The Vietnamese called the "Helgoland" the "white ship of hope." The crew helped everyone, no matter which side they may have been on. "We never asked where they came from," the chief physician aboard the "Helgoland" recalled. On top of that, treatment on the boat came for free. For the doctors and nurses, working with the many civilian patients was a big challenge physically and mentally. They amputated limbs day and night from children, women and men, whose legs were torn to shreds by mines, who were wounded by gunshots or who had bad Napalm burns on their bodies. At night, the "Helgoland" left its harbor for the safer open sea. Surgeries still continued.”
- “The "Helgoland mission ended in 1971, when a hospital on land took over the tasks. Until then, the boat's staff treated more than 11,000 people. And they keep helping. Today, former crew members run an association to support Vietnamese children.”
History Is Full Of Surprises
Hope this story will be told more often in Germany! My gratitude goes out to these doctors and nurses!
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