The Sinking of The Zamzam

The South Atlantic, April 17. 1941

From a new book by Peter Levitt*

1. The Zamzam as HMS Leicestershire c. 1909	2. The raider Atlantis in port c. 1940	3. The Zamzam arrives in New York, March 12, 1941	4. The Zamzam departs New York, March 20, 1941	5. Passengers from The Zamzam ashore in Recife, Brazil.
6. Bernhard Rogge, Captain of The Atlantis	7. Holes punched in The Zamzam by shells from The Atlantis.	8. Passengers prepare to abandon The Zamzam	9. An injured passenger waits for a lifeboat.	10. Passengers from The Zamzam take to the lifeboats.
11. Passengers abandoning The Zamzam.	12. One of the lifeboats from The Zamzam	13. The Atlantis approaches the stricken Zamzam	14. Passengers from The Zamzam board The Atlantis.	15. Passengers from The Zamzam watch the ship sink from the deck of The Atlantis.
	16. The sinking of The Zamzam		17. Male passengers of The Zamzam in the hold of The Dresden supply ship.

The saga of the sinking of the Zamzam by a Nazi raider in April of 1941 has its 70th anniversary in 2011. To mark the occasion, author, editor and researcher Peter Levitt has synthesized his considerable informational archive in a timely book. In conjunction with the careful editing of both his mother's and other recorded testimony Peter Levitt has collected and arranged priceless photographs of both the event of the sinking and the long months of detention in Nazi Germany awaiting the British and Canadian passengers.
In terms of the sinking, on the one hand we have a neutral ship, sailing under British Admiralty orders, blacked-out and zig-zagging suspiciously. On the other, a Nazi raider, the formidable Atlantis, disguised as the Thamesis and stalking its prey with its guns at the ready. The dawn bombardment and evacuation of the Zamzam, then her mining and final dispatch to the bottom. All of this was captured in impressive detail by the unfortunate passengers of the Zamzam, passengers that included the author, his sister and his mother, and, as fate would have it, a bevy of good writers and photographers who have made their materials available to Peter Levitt over the years. But the story told in this book does not end there. Another story unfolds. (See Internment in Liebenau.)

*Levitt, Peter. A Memoir on The Sinking of The Zamzam. Lugus Publications, Toronto: 2011. $25.00 + %5 GST (in Canada) = $26.25

Order by email from studio203@distributel.net, call 416 342 9660 or place a special order at any bookstore with this information.

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Click here: http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?videoid?943076475001 to see Steve Paikin's interview with Peter Levitt on TV Ontario.