Director Herbert Selpin was arrested by the Gestapo during this film's production. He was found hanged in his cell the following day.
Joseph Goebbels approved a budget of 4 million Reichsmarks--equivalent to $180 million in 2012 dollars. That is only $20 million shy of Titanic (1997)'s budget.
After the film was confiscated by the Allies in 1945, footage from the sinking scenes would be recycled into numerous films and television shows whenever a low budget production required to show scenes of a massive shipwreck.
Although most propaganda movies are banned in Germany, sometimes this movie is broadcast on TV, albeit with the strongest propaganda scenes deleted.
After seeing this film, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels thought the scenes of mass panic were not appropriate viewing for Germans, who were then being subjected to British bombing. So he allowed only foreign release, with the film premiering in Paris in 1943. Beginning in late 1949 Germans could see the film, but Allied occupation authorities forbade its showing in West Germany in 1950 because of its anti-British propaganda.
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