The Forgers

Author Roger Moorhouse
Narrator Roger Moorhouse
Publisher Random House
Publish Date 10 August 2023
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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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

The inspirational story of the ordinary people who forged the documents that saved thousands of Jewish lives in World War Two.

Between 1940 and 1943, a small group of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists in Switzerland engaged in a wholly remarkable - and until now, almost completely unknown - humanitarian operation. Under the leadership of the Polish Ambassador, Aleksander Lados, they undertook a systematic programme of forging 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.

The Lados operation was one of the largest rescue missions of the entire war, and The Forgers tells this extraordinary story for the first time. We follow the desperate bids of Jews to obtain these life-saving documents, and their painful uncertainty over whether they will be granted protection from the Nazis' murderous fury. And we witness the quiet heroism of those who decided to act in an attempt to save thousands of lives.

'Powerful ... gripping ... inspiring' JONATHAN DIMBLEBY
'Fascinating' THE TIMES
'Remarkable' SUNDAY TIMES
'As gripping as it is moving' JULIA BOYD, author of Travellers in the Third Reich
'An astonishing book' KATJA HOYER, author of Beyond the Wall

©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

Mail on Sunday

There is much fascinating research in Moorhouse’s book

Times Literary Supplement

Many inspiring stories have emerged from the horror of the Holocaust. This is one of them. Moorhouse’s account of the remarkable humanitarians who gave life to thousands of Jews by providing them with forged South American passports, is as gripping as it is moving

Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the Third Reich

Every now and again a new story emerges about the Holocaust despite the wealth of literature already available. Roger Moorhouse is to be congratulated for finding the remarkable account of thousands of Jews rescued by the efforts of a determined circle of Polish helpers. Original and thought-provoking, the history of the Lados circle challenges the argument that there was no way for the Allies to rescue Jews from Hitler’s Europe. With sufficient will and ingenuity, it was possible, against all the odds, to rescue a fraction of those otherwise doomed to die

Richard Overy, author of Blood and Ruins

This is a powerful story about a group of brave individuals who found a unique way of saving Jewish lives from the Nazis. Moorhouse’s original research is characteristically scholarly, his insights illuminating and his narrative gripping. An inspiring read and an important addition to the history of the Holocaust

Jonathan Dimbleby, author of Barbarossa

A powerful and painful book. The Forgers offers new details of the brave efforts of the Polish Underground to rescue Jews. It is heartbreaking when Moorhouse details the bureaucracy and bad intentions of the international community who knowingly turned their backs on these rescue operations. This is an intimate portrait of the cycles of hope and despair that the sadistic ruses and bestial atrocities of the Nazis imposed on concentration camp prisoners

Rosemary Sullivan, author of The Betrayal of Anne Frank

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