Description

**A Telegraph Best History Book 2023 and Spectator Book of the Year**

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

‘Powerful … gripping … inspiring’ JONATHAN DIMBLEBY

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.

‘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

Publisher 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 *