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The Jewish Refugees Who Became British Commandos to Fight the Nazis
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Leah Garrett - On the 80th anniversary of VE Day, it is crucial to remember the central role that Jewish soldiers played in the defeat of the Nazis. In June 1942, Winston Churchill and his chief of combined operations, Lord Mountbatten, created a commando unit of German speakers that was almost entirely composed of Jewish refugees. Most had arrived in the UK as teenagers on transit visas or Kindertransport from Germany and Austria. The X Troopers were placed in a range of existing units in leadership roles, taking on the most dangerous missions. Of the 87 men in X Troop, more than half were killed, wounded or disappeared without a trace. Ian Harris (Hans Ludwig Hajos) single-handedly captured an entire German garrison with nothing but a Tommy gun. Fred Gray (Manfred Gans) was at the forefront of the D-Day landings, killing and interrogating countless Nazis. In the waning days of the war, he commandeered a Jeep and drove to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he rescued his own parents. The writer is Director of Jewish Studies at Hunter College, CUNY, and author of X-Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War Two.