Windrush cover art

Windrush

The Soul of a Ship

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About this listen

For three decades the Windrush was the maritime Zelig of the 20th century, playing different roles in the most turbulent years in modern times. Designed in 1930 in the Hamburg boatyard of a Jewish shipbuilder to ferry Germans to a new life in South America, it wasn't long before Goebbels requisitioned her as one of his ‘Strength Through Joy’ vessels. However, her duties soon darkened: she became a Nazi troop carrier, a support vessel for the pocket battleship Tirpitz and a prison ship transporting Jews to Auschwitz.

Captured by the British in Kiel in 1945 and renamed the SS Empire Windrush, she then spent years evacuating displaced service people and, in her famous single voyage from the Caribbean, she brought the first wave of black migrants to Britain, thus changing the country's ethnic makeup for all time. Windrush: The Soul of a Ship is Paul Arnott’s vivid biography of a unique vessel, combining the memories of people who were there with a gripping account of an extraordinary merchant ship at the end of empires.

©2019 Paul Arnott (P)2019 Audible, Ltd Engineering Holocaust Imperialism Imperial Japan
All stars
Most relevant
very descriptive journal of the Windrush history, the book embraces the reality of war and presents an emotional depiction of the unjustly acts that happen as put of the outcome of misguided loyalty

enjoyable book

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I have a vested interest in the Windrush but there is loads here that I didn't know about. For anyone interested in WW2 and thereabouts this is a must hear.

Spoiler, I came in on the Windrush.

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Loved it, so educational have learned so much. Definitely going to recommend to others to read

Amazing book

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Thoroughly enjoyed the story of the Windrush, with a great deal more light and shade than one would realise given what she is remembered for today. Engagingly written and comprehensive researched. Narration is excellent as well.

A fascinating journey through modern history

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very good story the story of a ship that ties together many threads of modern history not just the 'Windrush generation

Windrush

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