X Troop : the secret Jewish commandos who helped defeat the Nazis

by Leah Garrett

Paper Book, 2021

Status

Available

Call number

940.541241 GAR

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

London : Chatto & Windus, 2021.

Description

"The incredible World War II saga of the Jewish refugees who fought in Britain's most secretive special-forces unit-but whose story has gone untold until now"--

User reviews

LibraryThing member jetangen4571

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!

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LibraryThing member ericlee

One reviewer described this book as “‘Inglorious Basterds’ but much better”. I don’t buy that at all. This is not, in any sense, based upon or linked to Tarantino’s brilliant film. Instead, it’s the true story of several dozen German and Austrian Jews who managed to make it to Britain

before the outbreak of the Second World War. There, they were detained as ‘enemy aliens’ until finally allowed to volunteer for the British Army. Trained as an elite commando force, they fought bravely and well across several fronts. Their specialty was capturing and interrogating German soldiers, who were always caught off guard. Sadly at the end of the war, the survivors were not immediately given British citizenship. Nor was their Jewish identity mentioned in the memorials, or even on the graves of those who fell. Leah Garrett has done a terrific job of telling a hitherto unknown story.

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LibraryThing member DanTarlin

This popular history book tells the story of a group of Jewish commandos, all refugees from Nazi Germany, centering on the stories of Manfred Gans, Peter Masters, and Colin Anson, but also paints the larger picture of their poor treatment by the British at first, their training in Wales, and then

their exploits in Western Europe and Italy from D-Day until the end of the war and afterwards.

The story seems to be told based on diaries and old interviews with the subjects, and it is their perspective that is front and center. There is less information about the reasoning and debates among the British high command, which would be interesting to know.

The writing is good enough, but I didn't love the style. I much preferred The Brigade by Howard Blum, a story about the Jews of Palestine who were similarly drafted into the war by the British.

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