X Troop

X Troop

The Secret Jewish Commandos Who Helped Defeat the Nazis

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

June 1942. The Third Reich is victorious everywhere. In desperation, Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form an unusual plan: a new commando unit made up of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria who escaped to Britain just before the War. Many have lost their families, their homes - their whole worlds. And now, in the crucial final battles against the Nazis, they will stop at nothing to defeat them. 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 Europe 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. For the first time, X Troop tells the astonishing story of these secret shock troops and their devastating blows against the Nazis.

© Leah Garrett 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Reviews

  • X Troop is brilliantly researched, utterly gripping history
    Alex Kershaw, author of The First Wave

About the author

Leah Garrett

LEAH GARRETT is a professor at Hunter College. Her last book, Young Lions: How Jewish Authors Reinvented the American War Novel, won and was shortlisted for several major literary awards. She lives in New York City with her husband, the thriller writer Adrian McKinty, and their two daughters.
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