The book tells the story of how, between 1940 and 1943, a group of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists in Switzerland, under the leadership of Aleksander Ładoś, who headed Poland's legation in that country, forged passports and 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.
In its publicity materials, Penguin describes the efforts of Polish diplomats as a “a wholly remarkable - and until now, completely unknown - humanitarian operation […] one of the largest actions to aid Jews of the entire war”.
The British publisher adds: “The Forgers tells this extraordinary story for the first time. We follow the desperate bids of Jews to obtain these life-saving documents; we witness their painful uncertainty over whether they will offer the desired protection, as the Nazi death machine draws ever closer. And we witness the quiet heroism of a group of ordinary men who decided to do something rather than nothing and saved thousands of lives”.
Moorhouse’s work is to be published by Basic Books in the United States in October and in a Polish translation next year.
Born in 1968, Moorhouse is an expert in modern German and Polish history, especially the World War II period. His books include Berlin at War: Life and Death in Hitler's Capital 1939-1945, The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941, The Third Reich in 100 Objects, and First to Fight. Poland 1939. In 2020, he received the Polish Foreign Ministry History Prize for First to Fight. Poland 1939. He is a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Warsaw.
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