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The Forgers
- Author Roger Moorhouse
- Narrator Roger Moorhouse
- Publisher Random House
- Run Time 10 hours and 28 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Biography and non-fiction prose, History, Political activism, Political oppression and persecution, Politics and government, Second World War, Society and Social Sciences, The Holocaust, True stories of heroism, endurance and survival.
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Listen to a sample
What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
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 programme 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.
While the Nazis unleashed their murderous fury, they retained a strange legalism that respected the citizens and passport holders of neutral countries. At first, these Jews were interned, in relative comfort, to be exchanged for German citizens held in these countries. Yet when it became obvious that the Latin American states were unwilling to honour these illegally issued documents, the 'Exchange Jews' gradually lost the protection that had saved them from the death camps.
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 life-saving documents; we witness their painful uncertainty over whether they will offer the desired protection, 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.
©2023 Roger Moorhouse (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Critics Review
-
The Forgers is a well-constructed and agreeably concise book with a clear narrative drive and fascinating detail … Moorhouse’s most laudable achievement is the light he shines on Lados and his team, who saved at least 2,000 Jews from extermination. Until now, they have not received the recognition they deserve
Gerard de Groot, The Times -
Among the many remarkable aspects of The Forgers is the fact that the prime movers were Poles, many of whom were notorious for antisemitism … [Moorhouse] does well to highlight that some Poles displayed admirable compassion.
Max Hastings, Sunday Times -
Roger Moorhouse, the leading historian on Poland’s war, publishes a full account of Lados’s efforts in an excellent book on the passport ring
Daniel Finkelstein, The Times -
Absorbing… It is a story that seems not to have been told much outside the academic literature, and it is deeply researched and well reported here
Spectator -
In this fascinating book, Roger Moorhouse shines a light on extraordinary, audacious and little-known rescue operation
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