About this item
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.
About the Author
I am a Professor and Director of Jewish Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York. I have published five books in Jewish studies and have won and was shortlisted for numerous literary prizes. My new book, X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War Two, has been featured on CNN, Time Magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, CSPAN and a range of other venues. The Daily Telegraph called it "A thrilling story, well-told" while the Times of London labelled it as "gripping" and The Jerusalem Report called it "stunning...an incredible moving story of Jewish heroism." X Troop is being translated into Hebrew, Polish and Russian. Young Lions: How Jewish Writers Reinvented the American War Novel - which won this year's Jordan Schnitzer book award and was shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Award. Journeys Beyond The Pale: Yiddish Travel Writing In The Modern WorldThe Cross And Other Jewish Stories By Lamed ShapiroA Knight At The Opera: Heine, Wagner, Herzl, Pertz and the Legacy of Der Tannhauser
