Every year the German Lutheran Church in Melbourne commemorates Rupert Neudeck's legacy in conjunction with the local Vietnamese community.
But who was Neudeck and what propelled him into action?
A history of refuge
Rupert Neudeck was born in Danzig in May 1939. He was barely four months old when Hitler unleashed his war on Europe and the world by invading Poland. Six years later, Germany and much of Europe was reduced to rubble. Sixty million people were dead and families were torn apart.
Millions of refugees had to find new homes and Neudeck was one of them.
But Neudeck's escape from conflict could have easily ended before reaching the perceived safety of the German heartland if not for a sliding-doors moment.
In early 1945, 12 million Germans fled the Eastern provinces of the Reich to evade the advancing Red Army Source: Supplied
He and his mother were supposed to board the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, a cruise liner converted to a hospital and military transport ship, in Gotenhafen. But they missed boarding and the same proud vessel was sunk just a few hours later by three Soviet torpedoes. The Gustloff's sinking resulted in 9,000 deaths, most of them civilians.
Neudeck and the Vietnam War
When the Vietnam War ended in 1975, millions of South Vietnamese saw no future for themselves in their homeland. Many were sent to re-education camps, enduring daily communist indoctrination, forced labor and torture.
An estimated 700,000 decided to flee Vietnam and paid their way onto rickety wooden fishing vessels to do so. An estimated 200,000 didn't survive perilous journeys over the sea.
When Neudeck saw footage of Vietnamese boat people drowning at sea, dying of thirst or exhaustion, he decided to act. As he recounts in Mission: Menschen retten! (Mission: Rescue them!'), the German documentary about his exploits, he "could not stand idle" when hearing about the refugees being "kidnapped, beaten up by pirates, even prostituted".
Rupert Neudeck with refugee Trang Lam in front of an original Vietnamese fishing vessel, now in Germany Source: Supplied
"I just had to do something", he says in the documentary. "Not 'maybe we should do something', or 'let's evaluate'. No, I just had to help."
Neudeck and the cargo ship Cap Anamur
The problem for Neudeck was that he had no money, no ship and no seagoing experience. But he was a journalist and had a strong idea of how to galvanise public support.
In short, Neudeck wrote a letter to Heinrich Böll, one of Germany's most respected post-war authors, asking him for support. Böll, to the great amazement of Neudeck, wrote back and promised to help.
Days later, the pair organised a press conference and founded the society 'Ein Schiff für Vietnam' ('A ship for Vietnam'). The media and Germans all across the nation rallied to the cause, pledging 1.3 million Deutsche Mark - about $1.1 million in today's money. These funds allowed Neudeck to charter the Cap Anamur and later Cap Anamur II freighters.
German author Heinrich Böll (1917-1985) with Rupert Neudeck in 1979 Source: WDR
German generosity erupts
The generosity of the public was matched by the goodwill of German politicians.
For many, helping the Vietnamese refugees was an act of redemption after all the horrific crimes perpetrated by Germans in WW2. By 1986, Germany had accepted 45,000 Vietnamese refugees. Most arrived under the Orderly Departure Program but a considerable amount were boat people.
In August 1979, Cap Anamur left Hamburg for the first time. The ship set sail for the South China Sea and it was only a matter of time before they would rescue the first group of boat people.
One of the 11,300 Vietnamese boat people rescued by Cap Anamur I and II Source: Supplied
Neudeck's credo was "No questions asked". He wasn't interested where the boat had come from or who was on board. It was enough, he said, to know that they were all fellow human beings in need of urgent assistance.
Ghost vessels
Most of the refugee boats, he recalls in 'Mission: Menschen retten!' were small, with around 75 or so people aboard. The vessels, he says, were often just drifting in the open sea, with failed engines, little or no food and no medical supplies for the sick and injured.
Most harrowing, he says, was the discovery of boats where all occupants had died from thirst or preventable diseases. Other vessels were destroyed by typhoons.
Neudeck and his team managed to save a total of 11,300 boat people. Most found a new home in Canada, the United States, Australia and Germany.
One of the countless fishing vessels rescued by Cap Anamur between 1979 and 1987 Source: WDR
One of them is Trang Lam. She was 14 years old and an unaccompanied minor when Neudeck plucked her from the sea. Her parents and siblings stayed behind in Vietnam before finding a new home in Canada. By then, Trang Lam was firmly settled in Germany. She later worked for Rupert and the two became life-long friends.
Legacy lives on in Melbourne
Rupert Neudeck died in Siegburg, Germany on the 31st of May 2016, but his legacy lives on.
The German Lutheran Church in Melbourne, for example, celebrates Neudeck's life and mission every year with a moving commemoration on the last Sunday in May, in conjunction with the local Vietnamese community at the German Lutheran Trinity Church in East Melbourne.
The annual event is attended by a number of Vietnamese who were rescued by Cap Anamur and Neudeck himself.
"My job was to tell the boat people that we were not communists or pirates, but a Western ship with a mission to save lives." Trang Lam Source: WDR
