Paszporty życia. Polscy dyplomaci, fałszywe dokumenty i tajna misja, która ocaliła tysiące Żydów

by Roger Moorhouse, Grzegorz Siwek (Translator)

Fałszywe dokumenty i prawdziwi bohaterowie

Historia jednej z największych – i najmniej znanych – akcji ratowania Żydów w czasie II wojny światowej

W latach 1940–1943 polscy dyplomaci w Szwajcarii we współpracy ze środowiskami żydowskimi opracowali system fałszowania dokumentów krajów latynoamerykańskich. Wystawione na żydowskie nazwiska, były następnie przemycane do okupowanych przez Niemców krajów. Ich posiadanie wzbudzało strach i jednocześnie dawało nadzieję na uniknięcie transportu do obozów śmierci.

Aleksander Ładoś, Stefan Ryniewicz, Konstanty Rokicki, Abraham Silberschein, Chaim Eiss oraz Juliusz Kühl – znani także jako Grupa Ładosia – uratowali życia tysięcy Żydów z całej Europy.

Historyk Roger Moorhouse rzuca światło na niezwykłą i zuchwałą akcję ratunkową prowadzoną przez Polaków, którzy zdecydowali się działać, gdy świat odwracał oczy.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Holocaust, World War II, Audiobook, World History, War

576 pages, Hardcover

First published August 10, 2023

About the author

Living the Dream. Historian and author of an international bestseller - "Berlin at War" was #1 in Lithuania :-) - as well as a few other books, such as "Killing Hitler", "The Devils' Alliance" and "First to Fight" - the last of which won the Polish Foreign Ministry History Prize in 2020.

I write mainly about Nazi Germany and wartime Poland, but I fear that might scare some people off, so I'll just call myself a writer of history books.

My current book (published in the UK in August 2023) is "The Forgers", which is the fascinating story of the Ładoś Group - a ring of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists operating out of wartime Switzerland - who were forging Latin American passports to help Jews escape the Holocaust. It is a VERY interesting subject - so I would urge you to get a copy!

I hope you enjoy my books. Any questions or queries or just wholesome praise, do let me know...

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

This is very much about the horrors of the Nazi occupation of Poland, and as such it's an important story, unflinchingly told. There were a number of embassy officials early on who issued visas with wild abandon to get people out while Europe's governments sat on their hands, and once the horrors of the Holocaust became apparent, and yet the Nazis still seemed to be respecting passports, a group of Polish diplomatic staff in exile set out to forge passports entirely, and probably saved up to ten thousand Polish Jews. Which is very much the story I was expecting to read, but it kind of seems like there's not much more to be told--we don't get much information about the men involved, or how they went about it, and the vast majority of the text is about the nightmarish events in Poland. So, a good book, but not really the book it's being marketed as.

[Darya Silman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Forgers: The Forgotten Story of the Holocaust's Most Audacious Rescue Operation by Roger Moorhouse is a solid contribution to our knowledge of the Holocaust.

While most books on the Holocaust focus on murderers, The Forgers tries to bring a flicker of light into the darkness, that is, tell a story about Polish diplomats who helped Jews to escape. By issuing Latin American passports and smuggling them to ghettos and occupied cities, representatives of the Polish government in exile must have saved thousands of Jews from deportation to death camps. Fraudulent as it had been, a passport of a country whose name sounded unfamiliar and the language unknown was a saving line: Germans thought Jews with foreign papers were worth the exchange.

As always, Roger Moorhouse delivers an engaging, enlightening story with a writing style somewhere between an academic paper - dates, names, locations, thorough research - and simplified popular science. The Forgers is an excellent starting point for those who want to avoid delving into more profound depths of human barbarity yet still want to know some details. For those knowledgeable about the Holocaust, the bigger frame, which constitutes 80% of the book, may seem repetitious and, thus, redundant. But how can one cut out one piece of the Holocaust without mentioning the others?

Some authors' historical works can be read and listened to without missing vital details or getting bogged down in numbers. That's the case with The Forgers. I 'read' it in an audio version and could finish it in a week.

Link to a photo gallery with false passports

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roger Moorhouse's The Forgers is an example of a very good book with one flaw that is still well worth your time. The Forgers looks at a cell of Polish diplomats in Switzerland who provided forged documents to thousands of Jewish people facing the worst of the Holocaust. By far the strongest part of this book is Moorhouse's ability to distill the actions and movements during the Holocaust by various groups without losing sight of the unspeakable horror throughout. A significant amount of the book chronicles some of the worst ghettos of World War II and how the acquisition of a forged passport could be the difference between life and death.

The one flaw has directly to do with the title of the book. "The Forgers" is a misnomer. The actual people behind the forging cell take up very little space within the book. Their names are mentioned and we get very short biographies, but most of the book is devoid of their presence. It would be much more accurate to say this book revolves around the actual forgeries as opposed to the forgers. In the end, this flaw does not diminish the book in a truly significant way. The research and writing are top notch and this is well worth a read.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Basic Books.)

[Katherine Wacker · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Roger Moorhouse’s, The Forgers, the author takes a detailed look at the decimation of the Polish Jews during World War II. Despite the bellicose behavior of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, the majority of Western Europe and America chose to turn a blind eye to the treatment of Jews because leadership feared uncontrolled immigration to their own countries. As a result, the Holocaust continued unabated and countless lives were lost. However, a few brave souls would intervene by making false South American passports saving about 3500 lives. This operation may not be well-known but deserves to be told.

The Forgers chronicles in well-researched and devastating detail the Nazi persecution of the Polish Jews and larger Jewish population of Western Europe. It also records the Allies feckless inaction using primary sources. Consequently, the Nazis and the Soviets moved swiftly to eliminate Jews and the Christians who tried to shelter them. Due to the efforts of a few brave souls who worked tirelessly to provide false papers to South America, a few thousand Jews escaped to freedom. The book relays some of these accounts through letters and eye-witness testimony.

The volume does a tremendous job of covering the brutality of the Holocaust. It is mind-numbingly hard to read but a necessary one. Some aspects of history covered in this book are not well known. However, despite introducing the title characters in the beginning and concluding with them at the end, The Forgers’ focus is the elimination of the Jews instead of those that tried to save them. Readers should be alerted of this, or they may be disappointed. Even so, it is still worth the time.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horrifying.

[Michael Rumney · Rating 3 out of 5]

What drew my attention to this book was the forgery to save Jews in Poland. There is very little of this topic in the book which focuses of what happened to Jews and to a lesser extent the Polish themselves when occupied by the Nazis.
This is a harrowing narrative and the numbers involved in terms of murders and suffering is eye watering. In fact the numbers are so high it is hard to comprehend and virtually become meaningless.
The author obviously did a lot of research in telling a story that has to be told but you have to be ready for it.

[Wendy Westfere · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very hard/sad to read/listen to

[K. M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and incredibly sad take on the worldwide collective to forge passports and other legalization documents to save “disowned” (country-less) Jews.

Personally, I prefer Tim Snyder’s excellent “Black Earth” as he delves a bit more into the political reasoning as to why it was important to the Nazi’s to make the Jews “homeless”, while Mr Moorhouse focuses on the aftermath of this homelessness and the lengths people took to rectify.

[Lorrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written with the information presented in a way that flowed in an understandable way. There are many parts to juggle! The actual part about the “forgers” was minimal. So, while it may be information that is “unknown” til recently, it’s not what drives the bulk of the book. My issue is that the book’s content, while excellent, doesn’t reflect what is promised in the title: the Forgotten Story of the Holocaust’s Most Audacious Rescue Operation.

PS… humans are horrible

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the saddest books I've ever read. The worst of humanity, and the courageous few who opposed the wrath.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

p. 78 German propaganda sought to drive a wedge between the Poles and the Jews to prevent any possible collaboration. "Walls were covered with posters depicting the Jews as repulsive and dangerous criminals or as vampires sucking Polish blood. Special free films were shown that demeaned and ridiculed Jews. Public lectures were held asserting that Jews were immune to typhus but functioned as carriers of the disease and could pass it on to Aryans. It was no wonder so many Poles began to curse the Jews. The already strained relations between Polish Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors were soured further. By the time they entered the ghettos, the Jews were already very much alone.
p. 102
...those arriving from Germany into the ghettos of Minsk, or Riga, had no legal rights at all. They were nonperson, citizens of nowhere. They now inhabited an extralegal space in which there was no obstacle or impediment to their further deportation of extermination. It was for this reason that false papers and forged passports were essential for deported Jews if they were to survive.
p.140-41 Yet in the face of incontrovertible evidence, many found the report hard to believe. "it seemed to me so devilish, so horrible, that at first I thought it was exaggerated." "How can we believe the killing of 700,000 people (these were Polish Jews killed). The Americans were dubious of the suggestion of an ongoing genocide - "wild rumor inspired by Jewish fears." They decided to sit on the revelations. [has anything changed? no one really cares how many Jews are killed].
The recent attacks on Oct. 7 in Israel were carried out by 21st century Nazis.
p. 170 Surrendering civilians were routinely shot out of hand, bodies left where they fell. A German eyewitness recalled how a young woman emerged from a building with her five children in tow, seeking to escape the carnage. Spotted by an SS man, the group was ordered to stand still, before being mowed down by a hail of machine-gun fire. "There they lay, in the middle of the market square, side by side, as they had stood. Some of the children were still alive; they waved their little arms and we heard their moans. The SS man approached the group, pulled out his pistol and shot the children in the head.... Then he calmy returned whence he had come, as if nothing had happened. Massacres, too, were commonplace. When German forces entered the Jewish hospital in Czyste, they proceeded to work their way through the wards, systematically shooting the patients in their beds. When they were finished they set fire to the building, leaving the remaining patients and staff, who had fled to the basement, to burn to death.
p. 173... any suggestion of rescue operations to aid European Jews would be rejected out of hand. Even the sending of aid packages to the camps and ghettos was rejected on the grounds that it represented a diversion of vital resources that would achieve only limited results.
A group of Polish underground tried to obtain visas for Jews for South American countries. Some percentage were actually able to use them, most were tricked over and over by the Germans to believe that they would be able to get out of the hellhole.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a free advance digital review copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

It’s well known that other countries did little to help rescue Jews from Germany and Nazi-occupied countries, even as the war went on and it became clear that failing to help meant near-certain death. But where politicians and bureaucrats refused to help, others stepped in an used whatever methods they could to save Jews. This book focuses on a plan first devised by a Polish attaché in Switzerland to use blank passports and similar forms from other countries, mostly in Latin America, and provide them to Jews trying to escape death.

You might wonder why the Nazis would care about a Jew carrying a passport from a foreign country, considering their view that all Jews should be erased. The idea was that anyone held by the Germans who had a foreign passport should be held for potential exchange for German nationals held overseas or just to be exchanged for money. Some prisoners (Jews and non-Jews) were obvious high-value individuals, such as relatives of prominent foreigners, or well-known names in the arts. Others were ordinary people. Often the Nazis were aware that the Latin American passports weren’t quite legitimate, but as long as the country of issue didn’t disavow them, they were generally honored by the Nazis. Things changed in the last year of the war, but before that, “exchange Jews” were generally far better off than other Jews. One example was Anne Frank’s best friend, Hanneli Goslar. Goslar’s family had Paraguayan passports and were held in a relatively privileged part of the Bergen-Belsen camp until liberated by the Red Army from a transport south at the end of the war. Hanneli was at Belsen a year before Anne Frank arrived, but because Anne Frank had been at Auschwitz and then transported to Belsen with thousands of others to live in appalling conditions, she died while Hanneli lived.

Despite the title, this book’s focus is less on the operators of the passport scheme and more on the wartime experiences of Jews in places like the Warsaw ghetto and later in various camps, from death camps like Treblinka, to Belsen, and detention camps in former hotels, as in the Vittel spa in France. Though Moorhouse’s writing tends to the workmanlike, it’s impossible not to feel the emotions of those in peril and having to gamble for their lives over and over. It’s unknown how many people were saved by the passport scheme, possibly only a few thousand. But the same was true of Oskar Schindler’s efforts, and the forgers deserve as much praise.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4

[mariuszowelektury · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Paszporty życia” to poruszająca książka o mało znanym rozdziale Holocaustu - wysiłkach polskich dyplomatów w Szwajcarii w latach 1940 - 1943, aby uratować Żydów, obywateli polskich, ale i innych krajów, przed zagładą. Dzięki współpracy z konsulami honorowymi krajów południowoamerykańskich załatwiali paszporty lub poświadczenia obywatelstwa, zapewniające ich posiadaczom realną lub jak z czasem okazało się iluzoryczną ochronę przed deportacją do obozu koncentracyjnego. Ich działalność spotkała się z niechęcią władz szwajcarskich, obawiających się zadrażnienia stosunków z III Rzeszą jak i państwami alianckimi. Postawa państw alianckich, czy południowoamerykańskich była również dwuznaczna moralnie, podszyta antysemityzmem. Może to być jedno z wytłumaczeń niechęci do popularyzowania wiedzy o grupie Ładosia w okresie powojennym.

Moorhouse szczegółowo opisuje proces, w jaki naziści początkowo honorowali paszporty życia, licząc na to, że wymienią tych ludzi na swoich obywateli przebywających w krajach neutralnych. Jednak wraz z postępem wojny odchodzili od tego pomysłu, zwłaszcza w stosunku do Żydów z Polski, obawiając się, że staną się oni żyjącymi świadkami eksterminacji.

"Paszporty życia" to nie tylko historyczna relacja, ale także przypomnienie o odwadze i poświęceniu tych, którzy ryzykowali własnym życiem, aby ratować innych. Autor pokazuje, jak polscy dyplomaci działali w obliczu niewyobrażalnego zła, aby zapewnić nadzieję i ochronę prześladowanym Żydom. Przedstawia ich historię w sposób wzruszający i osobisty, pozwalając czytelnikom zrozumieć ludzkie oblicze tej tragedii.

Niezbędna lektura dla każdego, kto chce zrozumieć Holokaust i jego konsekwencje. To wnikliwa i poruszająca książka, która rzuca światło na jeden z najciemniejszych rozdziałów w historii ludzkości, a jednocześnie przypomina o sile ludzkiego ducha.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Forgers is another story about the use of forged passports for Jews to save them from the Germans. It doesn't seem to have been an easy process.

Moorhouse was very precise and graphic in the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust. this books relays that thousands of non-Jewish Poles were brutalized and killed also. The author relays the plight of Poland (the book focuses on the take over of Poland), it's Jews and non-Jews and how so many of them plotted against the Germans, many of them dying for their efforts. Their perseverance was astonishing. After finding through sporadic use that forged passports naming Polish Jews as citizens from Paraguay as well as other S. American countries saved many from being shipped off to concentration camps and certain death.

The Lado's Group was formed to facilitate a more elaborate use of foreign passports. Moorhouse told actual stories of Resistance and the people responsible for the aid to many. I vividly remember Moorhouse relating that once when the Germans were rounding up many to transport that the Jews with what little arms that they had resisted the Germans. Of course it turned into a blood bath but the Jews said that they would rather die at their own fate than by the hands of the Germans.

The story of forging actually did not play out in the book until mid-book. The start of the book was more from the historical time line of the war - always interesting but I wanted to know more about the forging operation.

The Forgers showed the hope and never-give-up attitude of Poland, the people that tried to save their country, Jew and non Jew alike, and the people that died at the hands of the Nazi's. Truly interesting.

[Zeb Kantrowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story in many ways mirrors how the Japanese council in Lithuania was able to save thousands of Jews by granting them visas to travel through Russia and onto Japan. Saving these people by getting them out of Europe and the hands of the Nazis.

This group was made up by a group in Switzerland that was made up of members of the Polish government in exile prior to the German invasion of September 1939. What makes it all the more amazing is that this group managed to smuggle people out of Poland by getting them passports for countries in Latin America (primarily Paraguay).

For whatever reason, the Germans decided to honor these passports, even though they suspected they were forgeries. They would OK travel by people holding these passports for Germans who were 'stuck' in other countries wanting to go back to Germany.

All in all they probably saved over 10,000 people.

[Chet Slonina · Rating 4 out of 5]

As well researched and written book about a widely unknown rescue to save Jews from undesirable consequences. For those who are avid readers of WW II history, don’t let this one slip by. Polish diplomats working in Switzerland to make a meaningful contribution and impact with no other reason than to save people’s lives as one of the largest Holocaust rescue operations in history. The story gives ample information on the fate of many as they were cast into unbelievable situations where the outcomes were so unexpected to be of a good nature. It also give the places people were sent to as well as the chess game played where the outcomes were not easily explained not understood.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

You may expect this book to start straight into the story of The Forgers but the first third of the book is about the back drop to the Second World War and the persecution of the Jews. It was a bit frustrating to start with but it meant you had a good understanding of why it was felt necessary. The story about The Forgers then starts to develop, culminating in the brutal descriptions of life in the ghettos and the camps.

It's very well-researched book about a particular story that isn't well known. The subject matter dictates that this is a difficult read and it doesn't hold back in its ferocity. An important story that needed to be told.

[Rhona Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed that the story was obscured by the author’s mission to set the full context. This resulted in pages and pages of details about the genocide during World War II. It’s difficult to read under any circumstances, however, particularly when the headline is that the book is about an audacious rescue mission.

The book itself is very thoroughly researched but it lacks the ability to draw the reader into the story.

If you want to get your head around the fascinating history of the use of false passports to remove Jews from deportation lists, just read the Epilogue.

[Mancman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was what I expected from the blurb. There’s very little about the forgers in here, or the detail behind how they carried it out. There are some interesting stories, asides from the main arc of the book, that convinced me to give this three stars rather than two.
It is an unrelenting tale of brutality and genocide, obviously, and that is starkly presented, which is powerful at times.
However, I found the prose very dry, and with more of an academic tone than most expected.

[Annie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

My fault, judged a book by its' title and cover. Not a novel but a Documentary/History reading.
This is not to say I did not learn from this book and without reading of it I would not know of the Passport Rescue Operation for the Jews from some very very brace people who have not received enough recognition. The Backgrounds of the countries who helped and who did not. I am sure many many people would like this book it was just too heavily conformed for me.

[KWink · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do not believe the title of this book.

It leads you to believe this will be a positive story of bravery, hope, and success. No no, that is not this story.

Instead, it is a story of desperation, misery, death, betrayal, misery, horrible treatment, efforts to save the vulnerable, misery, brutality, cruelty, misery, starvation, death, and misery. It should be titled The Misery of the Holocaust: Polish Jews and the Unsuccessful Attempts to Save Them.

[Caprice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad but interesting. I learned a lot from this story of forging passports I didn’t even realise that this happened. I think this book is really interesting for those who want to learn more about the resistance of the Jewish community during the Holocaust and the actions of those to help save people.

[Ptjerónimo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um texto muito confuso e que por vezes se torna penoso de ler em razão do enorme número de pessoas cujos nomes são referidos ou cujas histórias são narradas. De facto, só no mesmo epilogo -- relativamente muito curto -- é feita uma síntese que se revela indispensável para se poder ficar com uma ideia da relevância dos factos mencionados.

[Fred Schreiber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stopped reading the book after only about 1/4 of it. The author goes into great detail about the holocaust itself, but I hadn't even encountered much about forging documents yet. I assume the author was laying the groundwork to get to the subject matter, but I lost patience.

[Ellie]

There wasn't very much information about the forgers themselves or their work. I had thought this was going to be about them. It kind of dragged here and there. It should've had a different title, it sounds like the book is all about them, and it barely mentions them.

[Diane Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the soft cover version, not that it makes any difference. I (coincidentally) read it at the same time as listening to the podcasts by "The Rest is History" - Hitler's War on Poland three part series.
A non-fiction very good read.

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't absolutely awful, but so dry that I was 75% through and realized I didn't care and couldn't name a single person

[Birdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think about this read often when coursing through the generational effects of the Holocaust. The foragers were courageous and wonderful to learn about. I hope I have this courage too.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to find out how many Jewish, especially Polish and German, tried to secure forged passports to escape the Holocaust. This tells their stories...

[Yong · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating history and an important book about the holocaust.