X Troops : The secret Jewish Commandos of WW2 by Leah Garrett 2021 330pg

This is the story of British Jews who escaped the Nazis or were kinder train children.3/10/21

They were Jewish refugees from Germany , Hungary and Austria 87 men to wreak havoc against the German's. They fought in France, Sicily, Italy, Greece,  Yugoslavia, Albania and Netherlands.

Interned at Warth Mills Camp in Bury Greater Manchester, Prees Heath outside Shrewsbury in tents. Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man had 14000 inmates. Including Arthur Koestler and Fred Uhlman.

The HMS Ettrick had 1307 internees and in the hold, 1345 German POWs who were protected by the Geneva Convention in cabins  but they were not, to Canada.

1940 The HMY Dunera 2732 internees on board on a trip to Australia that took 54 days.  Sigmund Freuds grandson Walter Freud was there as well as  Ulrich Boschwich. They were treated so badly that when the Australian authorities saw the conditions the anti-semantic officer in charge was court marshalled. 

1905 UK Aliens Act and 1914 Aliens Restriction Act

1938  March Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg was apposed  to unification with Germany and had to resign. Austria and Germany played against each in the Soccer World Cup and Austria won this was a protest against  unification, even though the game was meant to be a draw. Later. 9 Austrian players were in the Nazi team in Paris but with the antifascist protests they lost heavily Later on the rigged vote got Nazi approval of the Anschluss.

1939 3 Sept there were 70 000 UK residents from Germany Austria 55,000 of them were Jews.  There were nearly 10 000 Kindertrain orphans in the UK.  The Enemy Alien could volunteer for the Pioneer Corp and those in Australia could get back to England by volunteering for this, there task would be clearing roads, building bridges and basic tasks to prepare for war. When the Pioneer Corp volunteered for active military they were refused. One passed a pilots course but was turned down when he was found to be an enemy alien. They also did fire watch duty, clear bomb damage and build camps for the arrival of the Americans.

There were many foreign troops units in the UK but Mountbatten wanted a special unit of German speakers. This was kept secret and only 6 men knew about it. They had to take on English names and pretend to be British some did it with the help of a phone book.

1942 Dieppe Raid  August 300 ships 700 aircraft and 6000 troops mostly Canadian invaded but the German navy saw them and the Germans were ready for them.  there were X troops sent with them. It is now believed that on of the objectives was to get a 4 rotor enigma machine and code books for Bletchley Park. This was one of the worst blunder in WW2 63% of the Canadian were dead missing captured.  Lieutenant George Lane was captured in France and taken to see Rommel and is sent to a POW camp where the other prisoners thought he is a stooge . He had to go to the British officer in charge and he had to confirm he was a British. Meanwhile he described where Rommel's base. which was Chateau de la Roche Guyon with the result RAF Spitfires shot at Rommel's car and he had injuries.

The X troops were taken to Aberdovey for training and trained on Mount Snowden, facts about them were kept secret. Trained in many forms of field survival and warfare and billited in the local homes so got to know the Welsh residents who they met at weekly dances held there, as well as the Welsh novelist Bertha Ruck.  Other foreign troops had national identities and songs but not them they had to keep the ruse that they were British. The less they knew about their foreign identition the better in case they were captured.They also trained for 3 weeks in Achnacarry Scotland.

The Allies had retaken North Africa and were getting control of Sicily and the Suez Canal was now secure.

1943 May. At the Trident conference the Allies agreed with Churchill that they should knock Italy out of the war. They also needed a second front against German to relieve pressure on Russia. Some X troops saw action in Italy.

Before the Normandy invasion commanders landed at Normandy to check out the "New type" of mines on the beach. German mines were in the water on stakes but the salt water corroded theri safety pins and when the RAF bombed they went off in a chain reaction.

1944 July. X Troops in vaded the Island of Vis as a diversionary move and joined Tito partisans there so that the Germans were not ready for them when they invaded Sicily. Evelyn Waugh was there on the island.

X Trooper Corporal Gerald Nichols because his Aryan looks had a blond appearance in the 1936 Olympics and appeared in Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda film Olympia.

General Bernard Montgomery was popular with the troops despite what his superiors thought of him, his success in N. Africa went to his head. He warned the soldiers for Normandy to advance from the beach and not stay there. On sappers blowing their way through the German steel barricade an X Trooper found Germans capitulating and asked them the way through the minefields and led the troops on. Some of the POWs  only spoke Russian and Polish.

D day had been more successful than the Allies had hoped. However supplies took time as they had to assemble 2 Mulberry harbours and learn how to get tanks through the bocage - the high thick hedges. There were Sherman flail tanks that exploded mines. At a German bunker they saw a periscope and smashed off the top and put a phosphorus hand grenade in and 200 Germans charged out and put up their hands. Eventually these Jewish refugees were trusted enough to be given top roles.On had even been a the best German military boarding school.

Af 41 X trroops who landed on D day 27 had been killed wounded or taken prisoner.

They captured a German soldier who had been put into a punishment batalian and was prepared to draw a map of German positions and where mines were laid. 

Corfu had to be captured as it was strategic. A few months before the Jews had been taken away. The X  troops were welcomed by Greeks and under a flag of truce managed to persuade the garrison to surrender without firing a shot.

1944 November 1st Antwerp was the mouth of the Shield River, the Germans had a heavily armed Island of Walcheren This was quite a costly invasion adn only 2 of the tanks had got through but the dyke had been breached and water poured in. The X trooper called to the Germans come out and surrender before our tanks start shooting. They found supplies of food here to feed everyone around. Now the Antwerp Shipping lanes were open could be used to transport troops far into Europe. Many X troops would have got battle field commissions be Montgomery was against this.

Hitler realized the importance of Antwerp and launched the failed Battle of the Bulge as a counter offensive to get this.

 

After capturing Wesel the soldiers moved onto Osnabruck where an X trooper on a jeep negotiated the surrender of the entire German garrison and the news reel show the jeep single handedly leading hundreds of surrendering soldiers. Many officers wanted their troops to surrender to the American and not the Russians. When the Germans talked of the Russian looting and destruction they said yes but the Germans had done worse in Poland and Russia.

1945 April 4th The last push of the war to drive the Germans out of Northern Italy.

Heirich Himmler had released 1200 Jewish prisoner from Theresienstadt in exchange for 5 million Swiss Franks that Jewish organizations had collected.  Manfred Gans had heard that his parents who were hiding in the Netherland had been taken to Theresienstadt. He arranged a jeep and driver and documents and drove from Holland through parts of Germany he knew well and into Czechoslovakia through the American lines and to Russian occupied areas, he found Jewish Russian officers who spoke Yiddish and in Theresenstad found on the list that his parents were there and met them. They were high value citizens who could be used for exchange blackmail. Seeing a British officer indicated for the Russians that the war was over as they could never rely on the propaganda news the got. When he got back to Holland had a direct meeting with Princess Juliana and she arranged for Dutch citizens in Theresienstadt to be repatriated.

1945 May 7th was VE day Demobilized British soldiers had homes to go back to but the X troops were not even naturalized British citizens.  18 X troopers were commissioned during the war and were picked for the denazification programs and hunting Nazis. The Russians were dismantling factories and moving them east while refugees were moving into the Allied sector.

FIAT the Agency Technical sought to exploit German scientific advances. Colin Anson whose mother was alive had been treated badly by her coworkers and friends as she refused to divorce her Jewish husband. He had to translate documents from Albert Speers Ministry of armaments and war production.

Near Munster a number of SS had hidden as inmates of an insane asylum. Manfred Gans in Brocken arrested his school biology teacher who had introduced anti-Semitic initiatives into the town and school.

Polish and French troops received  naturalized papers during the war. Only in 1946 did Mountbatten explain about these hush hush troops. Most of the UK X troops embraced the new names and lived as Brits and frequently raised their children as Anglican but had to explain to their children how they had a Jewish cousin. However 2 who had family in the States reverted to the birth names and remained Jewish.

In the town of Aberdovey (Aberdyfi) in Wales a plaque stands for the 22 killed in action and refers to 86 German speaking troops who trained there it does not mention that all except 7 were Jewish. The X troops were a means for them to get roots again.

The authors previous book was The Young Lions about how Jewish servicemen such as Herman Wouk , Joseph Heller, Norman Mailer and Leon Uris taught American about WW2 and the holocaust.

  

 

The Devils Agent: Life and Times of Nazi Klaus Barbie by Peter McFarren and Fadrique Iglesias 2013 594pg

 French Nazis or Nazi collaborators in France. 18/5/23

The author was born in Bolivia of parents that had fled Austria,  Czechoslovakia in 1938

Because Barbie was born out of wedlock he had a complex and his father was a cruel man who beat his children when he was drunk. His grandfather refused to give him any part of the inheritance because of this. They lived in the Saarland that was occupied by the French. Barbie joined the SS and first worked in Belgium and France before arriving in Lyon..

1939The French authorities imposed restrictions on Jews immigrating and set up internment camps for refugees in southern France. Of 350,000 living in France less than halv were French born and 75 000 did not have French citizenship.

1940 the French collaborationist regime set up in Vichy under Premier Pierre Laval. Later Marshall Petain the French hero of the battle of Verdun took over. The slogan of liberty, equality and fraternity was replaced by "work, family and country"  Assets and property taken from the Jews went to the French state not the Germans. The Vichy regime set up a Ministry of Jewish affairs and a censos of Jews was taken. Jews who were French citizens were not arrested till Premier Pierre Laval signed an agreement with the Germans and offered and between July and Sept 1942 33057 Jews were transported. The SD worked closely with the French security police July 1942 the Velodrome de'Hiver was filled with 4000 Jewish prisoners.  11400 Jewish children and the Izieu orphanage where thee were 41 children. were deported by Klaus Barbie. Captain Theo Dannecker. was an associate of Eichman,  Dannecker.he was arrested by the US Army in 1945 and a few days later committed suicide.

In 1942 the Catholic church protested  and the church was the mainstay of the Petain regime so Petain backed down after  that but still another 32000 Jews were rounded up and sent. In total 80000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz and that was a quarter of the Jewish population of France.  A third of these were French citizens. The calculated strategy of Petain to collaborate with the Germans by deportation's  in order to gain independence failed.

1943 Barbie went to Germany for 2 month to be treated for venereal disease.

The resistance members came from all walks of life and included Catholics, immigrants and members of the Jewish community Once the Normandy invasion started they provided the Allies with intelligence and started of at about 100,000 in June 1944 by October they were about 400,000. As the German military lost ground so the resistance strengthened. Jean Moulin met de Gaul in London  and was the coordinator in France. 

Moulin was very successful in fighting the Germans but betrayed by collaborators including Rene Hardy who worked for Barbie.  Of the 7 resistance fighters caught Raymond Aubrac escaped because his wife set up a ruse and asked  permission to marry him as she was pregnant with a child out of wedlock with him. When he arrived to sign the resistance attacked the guard and the Aubacs were evacuated to London.

 1944when the Allies were advancing towards Lyon the 629 inmates in the Montluc Prison were taken from the cells and sent to death camps. Barbie escaped from Lyon taking the 109  resistance fighter hostage and they were gunned down at the airport before he flew out.  Once Barbie had left, the resistance disguised as Gestapo and freed 950 prisoners' in Montluk prison.

After liberation approximately 9000 collaborators were executed mostly without trial.  Approximately 30000 women accused of collaborating were given head shaves and known as Les tondues.

 October 1945 Piere Laval , and Joseph Darnand were tried. Several of Barbies French and German collogues were arrested and provided incriminating evidence against him. In 1947 the Americans had all Barbies personal records and yet they hired Barbie. Jean Moulin  became the most famous and honored French resistance fighter and the official personality of the French resistance.

Petain at 89 was condemned to death of treason but  de Gaul commuted the sentence to life in jail and he died in 1951.

The French generally acknowledged their past and no longer deny their conduct during the war.

1938 Bolivia Free Immigration Decree opened the country to immigration on condition that they worked in rural areas. and till the end of the war the Jewish population there increased from 40thousand to 70thousand. Bolivia role in sheltering refugees was not recognized but that of sheltering Nazis was.

1825 Bolivia became a republic  and suffered most of it years with military coups and social uprisings. This instability had resulted in 78 different government since then.

1951  Barbie arrived with his wife Regina and 2 children via the ratline with the support of the US intelligence and Vatical Officials

In Bolivia he was known as Klaus Altman his role was in advising intelligent officers in interrogation techniques that he used over the years. . He talked openly about his connections to former Nazis and had no remorse for his wartime actions. He had close times with Arce Gomez especially after the military seized power in 1980. The USA started taking an interest in this as the regime had links to narcotrafficking. Ex Nazis and mercenaries known as Bridegrooms of Death made up of criminals who had fled from their own countries. Barbie even had a diplomatic passport for international travel.  The foreign  press eventually wrote articles that exposed the regime and its working relationship to Klaus Barbie.

1960sBarbie had set up Trasnmaritima Boliviana as a facade for arms trafficking.

1967 he advised the CIA on the strategy for capturing Che Guevara

1970s Beate and Serge Klarsfeld and Simon Wiesenthal started investigating him and France requested his extradition. They even thought of kidnapping him. Inspired by the Eichmann kidnapping of 1960.Augustus  Pinochet who took over Chile in 1973 was a close friend of Barbie's Nazi associates.

1982 a liberal democratic regime returned to power and Arce Gomez and Garcia Meza were disgraced and jailed.

Barbie had entered Argentinean after WW2 with false documents. Between 1960s and 1980s  Barbie helped brutal corrupt Bolivian regimes here. Herman Siles Zuazo assumed the Presidency ending 2 decades of harsh military dictatorship.

Barbie was arrested for past debts and Zuazos fragile coalition accused the Nazi fugative of directing paramilitary death squads and cocaine smugglers. This arrest would promote a new image of Bolivia in Europe. Barbie was delivered to the Cayenne in French Guiana. President Francois Mitterrand  wanted him as perhaps Mitterrand war time loyalties were suspect. Barbie was a balding old man who 2 years earlier buried his only son and recently his wife.

1983 extradited to France. When Barbie was returned to Lyon to the Montluc Prison  there were about 35000 Jews living there and many were related to people who had been tortured or deported by Barbie. The closet of the truth of Vichy France would now have to be opened. The trial would reveal the wounds of the French colonial past.

Barbies torture of Moulin was not on the official agenda.  

Jewish deportees who survived and returned to France were an ambarrising reminder of shame.

Jacque Verges was the defence lawyer and he wanted to prove that Jean Moulin was betrayed by a Frenchman Rene Hardy and  commited suicide. Simone Veil a Auschwitz survivor warned that the trial would divide the country. 

1954 The last Nazi trial in France was against Helmut Knochen commander of the security police during the Nazi occupation. His death sentence was commuted to life in 1962 and he died a free man in Germany in 2003.

Not just Barbie was on trial but France itself, if they could examine crimes of the 1940 what about the crimes of the 1950s and 1960s in Indochina and Algeria. Verges had had a Vietnamese mother married to his French father who lost his job as an army doctor for marrying an Asian. He fought in de Gauls Free French  army, yet supported anit-zionist and dictators, he was prepared to defend political activists and terrorists on both extremes of the political spectrum and it was acceptable to take money from Swiss Nazi Francois Genoud. Verges offered his services to Slobodan Milosevic ,Saddam Hussein and al Gaddafi. He had met Che Guevara Mao Zedong the Pol Pot regimes, Arafat and ayatollah Khomeini

1985 Shoah by Claud Lanzmann was a 9 hour documentary film of the holocaust which helped to awaken memories.

Original documents with Barbies signature showed that when German troops needed transport to retreat trains were secured by Barbie  for 650 people to be transported to death camps.

Was imperialism a crime against humanity, Was the Holocaust unique or just a consequence of human nature..  

1987 Barbie was found guilty of crimes against humanity. his trial rewrote the history of France. The treacherous role of the French government showed the dangers of racism and fascism       

1991 Barbie he died in jail in Lyon of Leucemia aged 78.

1994 Jacques Chirac formally opened a museum that was paid for by the Zlatin family with records of all the children who died.

Epilogue

All Barbies letters to friends and family written in jail can be seen. Totalitarian and authoritarian institutions turned a blind eye to human rights in order to carry out their ideological and political agendas. 70 milion people died in WW2 but Barbie was not unrepentant.

Nazi networks had been useful to  South American to right wing militaries  in Chile , Argentina , Brazil Paraguay and Bolivia. The   book includes details of his years and helping  narcotics mafias in   S. American .