German Schoolboy, British Commando

German Schoolboy, British Commando PDF Author: Helen Fry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Germans
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
"After his father's death in 1937 at the hands of the Gestapo, Claus Ascher, a German Jew, managed to flee to Britain where he subsequently joined the British Army and changed his name to Colin Anson. During the Second World War Anson was one of around a hundred German refugees to be trained in the British Commando unit known as 3 Troop or X-Troop. Attached to the Royal Marine Commandos, Colin took part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943 where his ship received a direct hit from a German plane. Surviving a life-threatening head wound when shrapnel penetrated his skull, he underwent brain surgery in a field ambulance. After nine months of recuperation and further brain operations, Colin was determined to fight again. He returned to his Commando unit to fight in the Yugoslav islands in protection of Tito and the partisans, becoming the first Allied soldier to liberate Corfu." -- Back cover.

German Schoolboy, British Commando

German Schoolboy, British Commando PDF Author: Helen Fry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Germans
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
"After his father's death in 1937 at the hands of the Gestapo, Claus Ascher, a German Jew, managed to flee to Britain where he subsequently joined the British Army and changed his name to Colin Anson. During the Second World War Anson was one of around a hundred German refugees to be trained in the British Commando unit known as 3 Troop or X-Troop. Attached to the Royal Marine Commandos, Colin took part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943 where his ship received a direct hit from a German plane. Surviving a life-threatening head wound when shrapnel penetrated his skull, he underwent brain surgery in a field ambulance. After nine months of recuperation and further brain operations, Colin was determined to fight again. He returned to his Commando unit to fight in the Yugoslav islands in protection of Tito and the partisans, becoming the first Allied soldier to liberate Corfu." -- Back cover.

German Schoolboy, British Commando

German Schoolboy, British Commando PDF Author: Helen Fry
Publisher: History Press (SC)
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Colin Anson was born Claus Ascher in Berlin and raised a Protestant. He was forced to flee Nazi Germany because his father, Curt Ascher, was one of Hitler's few serious political opponents during the 1930s. Curt stood up for his beliefs, was arrested by the Gestapo, imprisoned at Dachau and murdered there in 1937. In 1939, with his own life in danger, Colin found refuge in Britain, where he went on to join the British Army. Selected for Commando service, he trained with 3 Troop, the only German-speaking unit in the British armed forces. He was attached to the Royal Marines and took part in the invasion of Italy and Sicily in 1943, surviving a near-fatal head wound, before participating in raids into Yugoslavia and Albania, and then in the liberation of Corfu. At the end of the war, he was to find out who had betrayed his father, and the book includes an account of how he reacted to this discovery.

X Troop

X Troop PDF Author: Leah Garrett
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0358177421
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
WALL STREET JOURNAL BOOK OF THE MONTH "This is the incredible World War II saga of the German-Jewish commandos who fought in Britain’s most secretive special-forces unit—but whose story has gone untold until now." —Wall Street Journal “Brilliantly researched, utterly gripping history: the first full account of a remarkable group of Jewish refugees—a top-secret band of brothers—who waged war on Hitler.”—Alex Kershaw, New York Times best-selling author of The Longest Winter and The Liberator The incredible World War II saga of the German-Jewish commandos who fought in Britain’s most secretive special-forces unit—but whose story has gone untold until now 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. 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, 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 Germany 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. “Garrett’s detective work is stunning, and her storytelling is masterful. This is an original account of Jewish rescue, resistance, and revenge.”—Wendy Lower, author of The Ravine and National Book Award finalist Hitler’s Furies

Churchill's German Special Forces

Churchill's German Special Forces PDF Author: Paul Moorcraft
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1399061305
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The existence of German-speaking units fighting for the Allied cause during WW2 has remained largely a well-kept secret. But seventy-five years on these units’ contribution to victory needs to be fully acknowledged. Prime Minister Winston Churchill had no qualms about using native German speakers from Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and of course Germany itself. The majority were Jews who had fled persecution. Two examples of these secret units were X Troop Commandos and the Special Interrogation Group. The SIG men deserve their legendary status. They fought, and often died, wearing Wehmacht uniform. As this superbly researched book reveals that, after infiltrating Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps, one detachment even drew Nazi pay. Inevitably once the existence of SIG units became known, their immediate execution on capture was ordered, unless their temporary reprieve would reveal intelligence under torture. We learn how Churchill’s initiative was copied by both the Americans and the Russians. Post-war SIG and X Troop survivors joined British special forces or were used to hunt down Nazi war criminals. All this and more is covered in this ground-breaking book by a writer who is both a leading historian and foreign correspondent.

Why I Became an X Troop Commando

Why I Became an X Troop Commando PDF Author: Helen Fry
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300280343
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
A fascinating and moving biography of Colin Anson, the German refugee who became an elite British commando Born in Germany in 1922, Colin Anson’s (Claus Ascher) childhood was marked by the trials of Nazism. His father was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937 and transported to Dachau, where he died shortly after. Colin, aged just seventeen, escaped to Britain in the Kindertransport. As soon as he was old enough, Colin volunteered in the Pioneer Corps. Then, in 1942, he was recruited for the elite commando unit X-Troop. Colin took part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943, where he sustained a near-fatal injury. But just months later, he returned to duty. He fought in the Yugoslav islands, became the first Allied soldier to liberate Corfu, and was stationed in postwar Frankfurt. In this unique biography, Helen Fry traces the remarkable story of Colin’s life. Drawing on extensive interviews, Fry recounts his actions in X-Troop and beyond in his own words—and sheds new light on the experience of refugees in the British forces.

The Jews of Wales

The Jews of Wales PDF Author: Cai Parry-Jones
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 178683085X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This study considers Welsh Jewry as a geographical whole and is the first to draw extensively on oral history sources, giving a voice back to the history of Welsh Jewry, which has long been a formal history of synagogue functionaries and institutions. The author considers the impact of the Second World War on Wales’s Jewish population, as well as the importance of the Welsh context in shaping the Welsh-Jewish experience. The study offers a detailed examination of the numerical decline of Wales’s Jewish communities throughout the twentieth century, and is also the first to consider the situation of Wales’s Jewish communities in the early twenty-first, arguing that these communities may be significantly fewer in number and smaller than in the past but they are ever evolving.

Striking Back

Striking Back PDF Author: Peter Masters
Publisher: Presidio Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
Masters, a member of 3 Troop, 10 Commando--a small British Army Commando unit comprised almost entirely of Jewish refugees--discusses how the unit formed, how members had to change their names and conceal their identities, the elaborate and grueling training sessions which prepared them for their part in the D-day invasion, and numerous battles and reconnaissance missions, offering glimpses into battlefronts in France, Italy and Holland. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens

The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens PDF Author: Helen Fry
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752496204
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Most of the Germans and Austrians who fought with the British were Jews but a significant number were political opponents of the Nazi regime and so-called 'degenerate artists'. They arrived in Britain between 1933 and 1939, and at the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 became enemy aliens. They volunteered to serve in the British forces, donned the King's uniform, swore allegiance to George VI and became affectionately known as the King's most loyal enemy aliens. This compelling story includes previously unpublished interviews with veterans and an impressive selection of archive photographs, many of which are reproduced for the first time.

Denazification

Denazification PDF Author: Helen P. Fry
Publisher: History Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780750951135
Category : Denazification
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
More than 10,000 Germans and Austrian fled Nazi persecution and served with British forces during the Second World War. At the end of the conflict, many returned to the land of their birth with the Intelligence Corps and Military Government, to begin the process of rebuilding Germany and Austria. Some were involved with the hunt for Nazi war criminals, others interrogated prisoners of war or gathered evidence from the concentration camps and interviewed the survivors. Two of them even provided close protection for Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee. They were also instrumental (in the west, at least) in re-educating the people about the values of democracy and a free society. This fascinating book, which is based on first-hand accounts from veterans, provides an important insight into how Germany and Austria were rebuilt after the end of the Nazi tyranny.

Hitler's Will

Hitler's Will PDF Author: Herman Rothman
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 075247572X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Herman Rothman arrived in Britain from Germany as a Jewish refugee in 1939, on the eve of the Second World War. He volunteered for HM Forces, serving in the Intelligence Corps, and in 1945 was posted to Westertimke and Fallingbostel prisoner of war camps to interrogate high-ranking Nazi war criminals. When papers were discovered sewn into the shoulders of a jacket belonging to Heinz Lorenz, who had been Joseph Goebbels' press secretary, he and a team of four others were charged with translating them under conditions of the deepest secrecy. The documents turned out to be the originals of Hitler's personal and political wills, and Goebbels' addendum. Later, in Rotenburg hospital, Rothman interrogated Hermann Karnau, who had been a police guard in Hitler's bunker, to establish information about the Fuhrer's death. ' Hitler's Will' is the amazing true story of Herman Rothman's remarkable life, including how he managed to escape from Nazi Germany before the War began, and his role in bringing to light Hitler's personal and political testaments.