X-Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II
- Location:
- Online event
- Time:
- Monday 31 May 2021, 16:00–17:30
- Contact:
- Professor Nathan Abrams
X-Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II
Leah Garrett - Hunter College, City University of New York
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 on Kindertransport. 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 in Wales where they spent years living with Welsh families, 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 will tell the astonishing story of these secret shock troops and their devastating blows against the Nazis. She will explore how this unique band of brothers from Germany went to Britain and back again, with stops at British internment camps, training in Wales, 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.
Leah Garrett is Professor and Director of Jewish and Hebrew Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York and author of X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II.
For further information: Professor Nathan Abrams - n.abrams@bangor.ac.uk
