17.10.2023 History, News, Polish-Jewish Relations

Book release (17th October): The Forgers by Roger Moorhouse

The book tells the secret history of one of the largest — and least-known — rescue operations of World War II.

Between 1940 and 1943, a group of Polish diplomats in Switzerland engaged in a wholly remarkable — and until now, completely unknown — humanitarian operation. In concert with Jewish activists, they masterminded a systematic program of forging passports and identity documents for Latin American countries, which were then smuggled into German-occupied Europe to save the lives of thousands of Jews facing extermination in the Holocaust. 

With the international community failing to act, the operation was one of the largest actions to aid Jews of the entire war. The Forgers  tells this extraordinary story for the first time. We follow the desperate bids of Jews to obtain these lifesaving documents as the Nazi death machine draws ever closer. And we witness the quiet heroism of a group of ordinary men who decided to do something rather than nothing and saved thousands of lives.

Order a copy HERE.


Roger Moorhouse is a historian and author specialising in modern German and Central European history, with particular interest in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and World War II in Europe. A visiting professor at the College of Europe in Warsaw, he is also the author of several books on World War II history, including Poland 1939 (winner of the Polish Foreign Ministry History Prize), Berlin at War (shortlisted for the Hessell-Tiltman Prize), and The Devils’ Alliance. He lives in the United Kingdom.  

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