“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 The Liberator
The incredible World War II saga of the German-Jewish commandos who fought in 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
