Later, at a private meeting with members of the board, Ismay promises to reveal a secret during the maiden voyage of the Line's new RMS Titanic that will change that.

He decides to set a plan of his own in motion to drive the stock price even lower once they reach New York, in order to obtain a larger share of the Line.

First Officer Petersen (Hans Nielsen), the sole German crew member on board, pleads with Ismay to slow the ship while sailing through ice-infested North Atlantic waters.

After the Propaganda Ministry gave final script approval in March 1942, shooting of interior scenes began shortly thereafter at Tobis Film's Johannisthal Studios in Berlin.

Beginning in May, 1942, exterior scenes were shot at the German-occupied Polish Baltic Sea port of Gdynia (renamed Gotenhafen), on board SS Cap Arcona, a passenger liner that eventually shared Titanic's fate; it was sunk a few days before the end of World War II by the Royal Air Force on May 3, 1945, with loss of life more than three times than that on the actual Titanic.

Titanic endured many production difficulties, including a clash of egos, massive creative differences and general war-time frustrations.

[5] After one week of troubled shooting on Cap Arcona, with Allies bombing raids occurring not far away,[5] Herbert Selpin called a crisis meeting where he made unflattering comments about the Kriegsmarine officers who were supposed to be marine consultants for the film, but were more interested in molesting female cast members.

This fits in with other works of anti-British propaganda of the time such as The Maiden Joanna (1935), The Heart of a Queen (1940), The Fox of Glenarvon (1940), Uncle Krüger (1941), and My Life for Ireland (1941).

The epilogue at the end of the film unambiguously underscored the intent of the filmmakers: "Der Tod von 1500 Menschen blieb ungesühnt, eine ewige Anklage gegen Englands Gewinnsucht.

Scenes of steerage passengers separated by crew members and desperately searching for their loved ones through locked gates and a chain link fence bore an uncanny resemblance to what was happening in German extermination camps during that time.

[12] Titanic was to premiere in early 1943, but the theatre that housed the answer print was bombed by Royal Air Force planes the night before.

The film went on to have a respectable premiere in Paris in November 1943 "where it was surprisingly well-received by its audience",[8] and also played well in some other capital cities of Nazi-occupied Europe such as Prague.

However, Goebbels banned its playing in Germany altogether, stating that the German people – who were at that point going through almost nightly Allied bombing raids – were less than enthusiastic about seeing a film that portrayed mass death and panic.