“Brilliantly researched, utterly gripping history: the first full account of a remarkable group of Jewish refugees—a top-secret band of brothers—who waged war on Hitler.”—Alex Kershaw, New York Times best-selling author of The Longest Winter and TheLiberatorThe incredible World War II saga of the German-Jewish commandos who fought in Britain’s most secretive special-forces unit—but whose story … Britain’s most secretive special-forces unit—but whose story has gone untold until now
June 1942. The shadow of the Third Reich has fallen across the European continent. In desperation, Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form an unusual plan: a new commando unit made up of Jewish refugees who have escaped to Britain. The resulting volunteers are a motley group of intellectuals, artists, and athletes, most from Germany and Austria. Many have been interned as enemy aliens, and have lost their families, their homes—their whole worlds. They will stop at nothing to defeat the Nazis. Trained in counterintelligence and advanced combat, this top secret unit becomes known as X Troop. Some simply call them a suicide squad.
Drawing on extensive original research, including interviews with the last surviving members, Leah Garrett follows this unique band of brothers from Germany to England and back again, with stops at British internment camps, the beaches of Normandy, the battlefields of Italy and Holland, and the hellscape of Terezin concentration camp—the scene of one of the most dramatic, untold rescues of the war. For the first time, X Troop tells the astonishing story of these secret shock troops and their devastating blows against the Nazis.
“Garrett’s detective work is stunning, and her storytelling is masterful. This is an original account of Jewish rescue, resistance, and revenge.”—Wendy Lower, author of The Ravine and National Book Award finalist Hitler’s Furies
more
WW2, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, royal-marine-commandos, internment, deprived-of-well-earned-citizenship, Kindertransport, interviews, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, nonfiction, action-adventure*****
I think that fear drove much of the humanity from the British government both in the early days of Hitler’s rise to a time after the war when uncommon sense should have reigned. Men and young men who were born in Hitler’s domain were sent away to other continents as enemy aliens after they had escaped and were treated very badly despite being Jewish. As things got worse for England it was determined that the Royal Marines commando units would be a good place for some of them because of their language skills. So they were given the rigorous training and stripped of their previous identity and sent off. Their actions and exploits are the stuff of legends, but their motivation was to destroy the regime that cruelly murdered their families and their former homelands. After the war, the British government remained averse to granting citizenship to these warriors!
The research was meticulous and the documentation includes diaries and declassified government documents as well as interviews done this millennium with survivors, wives, children, and grandchildren (some of whom were raised Christian out of personal fears). Fortunately, the epilogue gives a good amount of information about their lives after the war.
I learned a lot, and that’s always a positive for a history geek.
I requested and received a temporary digital ARC of this book from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
Let us Fight
I cannot believe some of the happenings in this book. I knew of the cruelty and anti-semantic beliefs of the German’s but I did not know how badly they were treated by the British after the war started. They were kicked out of Germany, Poland and other occupied areas, they went to Britain where they were welcomed and when the war started they were suddenly German Aliens and put in internment camps many that were not so good.
One of the worse stories in the book is about the men sent on the ship Dunera from Liverpool England to New South Wales in Australia. The captain that ran the ship was a Nazi loving anti-semantic person and treated the Jewish passengers very cruelly. The 400 German POW’s most of them Nazi’s or Nazi sympathizers on the boat were given cabins. The 1450 Jewish immigrants from Austria and Germany were stuffed in the hold of the ship with almost no water or sanitary conditions and little food and what food they got was full of weevils. Soon men were sick from Dysentery and diseases caused from the horrible unsanitary conditions and many died. If they complained, they were beaten. They were then taken to Camp Hay in New South Wales in Australia. The camp was dry, barren and hot.
When they had been there awhile they were allowed to transfer to the Pioneer Corps which built bridge and roads and such. Many of the Jewish immigrants were in the Pioneer Corps.
The British government came up with a plan to recruit German speaking immigrants for a special unit in the service. They called it X Troop. These soldiers were trained to be commandos and go in and not only gain important information by theft but by interrogating the German prisoner’s on the spot. This information was to be used to help the British win the war.
These Jewish immigrants only wanted to fight against Hitler. They were not a danger to Britain. This new troop was made up of very successful Jewish men as you can read in the book with their missions. They were brave, courageous and hated the Nazi’s.
I enjoyed reading history that I knew nothing about before. I was sad that the Jewish immigrants were treated so badly, but happy that those in the X Troop found a way to fight.
It was good that at the end of the book the author told the continuing story of some of the main characters and what happened to them after the war. That this was a true story made it much more interesting.
Thanks to Leah Garrett, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers, and Netgalley for allowing me to read a copy of the book for an honest review.