Scheduled for noon on Monday, the lecture is entitled We want to save as many lives as possible - the story of the Ładoś Group and of a Holocaust rescue operation.
In his talk, Roger Moorhouse was set to describe an initiative by Polish diplomats in World War II-era Switzerland to save hunted Jews from the Holocaust.
The lecture comes in the run-up to the publication of Moorhouse’s book on the subject, The Forgers. The Forgotten Story of the Holocaust's Most Audacious Rescue Operation.
The book will be published in the UK by Penguin on August 10, followed by a US edition by Basic Books in October and a Polish edition by Znak in 2024.
‘Remarkable humanitarian operation’
Monday’s lecture in Warsaw and the forthcoming book chart how a group of Polish diplomats in Switzerland, led by Aleksander Ładoś, provided some 10,000 Jews with forged passports and identity documents for Latin American countries to help save them from Nazi German death camps.
Aleksander Ładoś Photo: Wikimedia Commons
In publicity materials for Moorhouse’s book, Penguin described 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 added: “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”.
Born in 1968, Roger 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, Roger Moorhouse 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.
(mk/pm)
