Promotional Information

This is popular WW2 history at its heart-stopping best, fuelled by an incredible, previously untold story of the Jewish refugees who fought in Britain's most secretive special-forces unit

About the Author

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.

Reviews

This is Inglorious Basterds-but much better. Because it is the real story of clandestine Jewish fighters wreaking havoc against the Nazi war machine. -- Norman Ohler, New York Times best-selling author of Blitzed and The Bohemians
Leah Garrett's X Troop is 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, The Bedford Boys, and The Liberator
Part history and part mystery, X-Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II tells a compelling and little known story about an improbable group of "British" soldiers who made an important contribution to the war effort. Their transformation from interned "enemy aliens" to soldiers with high security clearances is fascinating. -- Deborah E. Lipstadt, author of Antisemitism Here and Now
Drawing from recently declassified British intelligence records and personal archives of former X Troopers, Garrett's detective work is stunning, and her story-telling is masterful. This is an original account of Jewish rescue, resistance and revenge from within the Reich and at its edges, starting with the boys flight to England and ending with their brave return as they spearheaded the Allied invasion at Normandy, fought to defeat the Reich, and remained in British service to denazify Germany and Austria. -- Wendy Lower, author of Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Killing Fields
A masterful work. Combining the skill of a superb storyteller and the precision of a first-rate scholar, Leah Garrett's new book tells a tale -- truly stranger than fiction -- of Jewish youth dispatched to the safety of England by their beleaguered German-Jewish families who volunteered for some of the most perilous of all anti-Nazi missions. An extraordinary portrait of heroism, of human decency amid horror. -- Steven J. Zipperstein, author of Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History
This is the best kind of history: highly original, deeply researched, beautifully written, with more than a touch of personal pathos. The men of X Troop went from stateless refugees of Nazi oppression to highly trained British special operations soldiers whose courageous actions did much to hasten Hitler's demise. Kudos to Leah Garrett for telling their amazing story with the authority of a scholar and the immediacy of a novelist! -- John C. McManus, author of Fire and Fortitude: The U.S. Army in the Pacific War, 1941-1943
Garrett recounts in this dramatic and deeply researched history the WWII exploits of X Troop, a British commando unit made up of Jewish refugees from Austria, Germany, and Hungary...Garrett folds vivid profiles of Lord Mountbatten, Lord Lovat, and other prominent military figures into the story, and skillfully draws from war diaries and interviews with surviving X Troopers. This scrupulous history shines a well-deserved spotlight on its heroic subjects. * Publishers Weekly *
A lively, expertly researched history of an obscure WWII unit whose heroism deserves recognition. * Kirkus Review *
Impeccable research gives the bravest of the brave the limelight they deserve. -- Ian Dear, author of Ten Commando
X Troop reads like a page-turning thriller. Cinematic in their scope and rich description, these are the heretofore unknown stories of young European Jewish emigres clawing their way out of Nazi-occupied Europe and finding refuge in the UK, only to be interned as enemy aliens in horrific camps in Canada and Australia, before being recruited by Churchill and Lord Mountbatten for their brains, brawn, languages, and anti-Nazi zeal. In Garrett's brilliant telling, based on original interviews and deep-dive archival research, their return to the continent as elite Allied super-commandos is both heart-stopping and heart-breaking. -- James Young, Founding Director Institute for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies and author of The Stages of Memory
This dramatic, previously untold story of extraordinary covert valor and victory takes readers all across the European front, culminating in the shock of the Terezin concentration camp. This tale of profoundly motivated and capable men of action on a noble mission, each profiled in condensed biographies, is a rousing and redefining portrait of an, until now, overlooked group of dedicated warriors who played an outsized role in defeating the Third Reich. Garrett has added a crucial chapter to the always relevant and ever-deepening history of WWII and the Holocaust * Booklist *
This is Inglorious Basterds -- but much better. Because it is the real story of clandestine Jewish fighters wreaking havoc against the Nazi war machine -- Norman Ohler, author of Blitzed
Leah Garrett's X Troop is 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, The Bedford Boys, and The Liberator
This is the best kind of history: highly original, deeply researched, beautifully written, with more than a touch of personal pathos. The men of X Troop went from stateless refugees of Nazi oppression to highly trained British special operations soldiers whose courageous actions did much to hasten Hitler's demise. Kudos to Leah Garrett for telling their amazing story with the authority of a scholar and the immediacy of a novelist! -- John C. McManus, author of Fire and Fortitude
Impeccable research gives the bravest of the brave the limelight they deserve -- Ian Dear, author of Ten Commando
Drawing from recently declassified British intelligence records and personal archives of former X Troopers, Garrett's detective work is stunning, and her storytelling is masterful. This is an original account of Jewish rescue, resistance and revenge from within the Reich -- Wendy Lower
X Troop reads like a page-turning thriller. Cinematic in their scope and rich description, these are the heretofore unknown stories of young European Jewish emigres clawing their way out of Nazi-occupied Europe and finding refuge in the UK, only to be interned as enemy aliens in horrific camps in Canada and Australia, before being recruited by Churchill and Lord Mountbatten for their brains, brawn, languages, and anti-Nazi zeal. In Garrett's brilliant telling, based on original interviews and deep-dive archival research, their return to the continent as elite Allied super-commandos is both heart-stopping and heart-breaking -- James Young, Founding Director Institute for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies and author of The Textures of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning
A masterful work. Combining the skill of a superb storyteller and the precision of a first-rate scholar, Leah Garrett's new book tells a tale -- truly stranger than fiction -- of Jewish youth dispatched to the safety of England by their beleaguered German-Jewish families who volunteered for some of the most perilous of all anti-Nazi missions. An extraordinary portrait of heroism, of human decency amid horror -- Steven J. Zipperstein, author of Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History
Part history and part mystery, X Troop tells a compelling and little known story about an improbable group of "British" soldiers who made an important contribution to the war effort. Their transformation from interned "enemy aliens" to soldiers with high security clearances is fascinating -- Deborah E. Lipstadt, author of Antisemitism Here and Now