The forgers

**A Telegraph Best History Book 2023 and Spectator Book of the Year**

The inspirational story of the ordinary people who forged the documents that saved thousands of Jewish lives in World War Two.

‘Powerful … gripping … inspiring’ JONATHAN DIMBLEBY

Between 1940 and 1943, a small group of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists in Switzerland engaged in a wholly remarkable – and until now, almost completely unknown – humanitarian operation. Under the leadership of the Polish Ambassador, Aleksander Lados, they undertook a systematic programme of forging 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.

The Lados operation was one of the largest rescue missions of the entire war, and The Forgers tells this extraordinary story for the first time. We follow the desperate bids of Jews to obtain these life-saving documents, and their painful uncertainty over whether they will be granted protection from the Nazis’ murderous fury. And we witness the quiet heroism of those who decided to act in an attempt to save thousands of lives.

‘Fascinating’ THE TIMES
‘Remarkable’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘As gripping as it is moving’ JULIA BOYD
‘An astonishing book‘ KATJA HOYER