Carrying people to their death then those starting a new life

The Windrush, originally MV (“Motor Vessel”) Monte Rosa, was a passenger liner and cruise ship launched on December 13, 1930 in Germany, with single-class passenger accommodation of 1,150 in cabins and 1,350 in dormitories.

It was designed for the growing middle-class holiday market, offering cheap accommodation to families on cruises.

She was operated as part of the state-owned Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) programme, which provided leisure activities and cheap holidays.

When visiting South America, the ship was used to spread Nazi ideology among the German-speaking community there.

When in port in Argentina, she hosted Nazi rallies for German-Argentine people.

In 1933, the new German ambassador, Baron Edmond von Thermann arrived in Argentina on the Monte Rosa.

He disembarked in front of an enthusiastic crowd wearing an SS uniform. He would spend his time in office promoting Nazi ideology.

The ship was also used to host Nazi gatherings when docked in London.

During the Second World war, she was operated by the German navy as a troopship, for the invasion of Norway in April 1940.

She was later used as an accommodation and recreational ship attached to the battleship Tirpitz, stationed in the north of Norway, from where Tirpitz and her flotilla attacked the Allied convoys en route to Russia.

In 1942, she was one of several ships used for the deportation of Norwegian Jewish people, carrying a total of 46 people from Norway to Denmark, including the Polish-Norwegian businessman and humanitarian Moritz Rabinowitz.

Of the 46 deportees carried on Monte Rosa, all but two died in Auschwitz concentration camp.

On March 30, 1944, Monte Rosa was attacked by British and Canadian Bristol Beaufighters close to the Norwegian island of Utsira.

The RCAF and RAF crews claimed two torpedo hits on Monte Rosa. The ship was also struck by eight rockets and by cannon fire.

One German Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter was claimed shot down and two Beaufighters were lost.

The two crew of one aircraft were killed, the crew of the other survived to become prisoners of war

Despite her damage, Monte Rosa was able to reach Aarhus in Denmark on April 3.

In June 1944, Norwegian resistance fighters Max Manus and Gregers Gram, attached Limpet mines to Monte Rosa’s hull while the ship was in Oslo harbour as it was prepared to carry 3,000 German troops back to Germany.

The pair had bluffed their way into the dock area by posing as electricians, then hid for three days before attaching their mines.

The mines detonated when the ship was near Øresund, damaging the hull.

In September 1944, 200 people died on board. The vessel was damaged by another explosion, possibly from a mine.

A Norwegian boy with German parents, Odd Claus, who was being forcibly taken to Germany, was one of those on board when this happened.

In his 2008 memoirs, he wrote that it was carrying German troops, but Norwegian women with young children, who were being taken to Germany as part of the notorious plot to make the race more Aryan – the Lebensborn programme.

The ship’s captain closed the watertight bulkhead doors to control flooding and stop the ship from sinking – and that is how the passengers died.

After its Windrush generation service, it was used to transport troops from the Korean War.

At around 6.15am on Sunday, March 28, after it had docked in Port Said, Egypt, there was a sudden explosion and fierce fire in the engine room that killed the third engineer, two other members of the engine-room crew and the first electrician.

The rest of the 1,541 people on board were successfully evacuated and the still blazing ship was towed towards Gibraltar.

The ship sank on Tuesday, March 30, 1954, after having been towed a distance of only around 16 kilometres.

The wreck lies at a depth of around 2,600 metres.