Solid book by Roger Moorhouse that I just finished. After Poland fell there were diplomats in exile in Switzerland who decided to do what they could to aide Jewish citizens out of Nazi occupied Europe. Always operating under nebulous circumstances they created identity papers and passports to nations mostly in Central and South America. From 1940-43 they were able to get thousands of Jews out of Europe, and thousands more preferential treatment in holding camps on the promise that they would be freed eventually. The Nazis were not fooled by the documents, but at the highest levels a blind eye was turned because an exchange program was set up. The Nazis in their quest for purity wanted Aryans around the world to be returned to Germany, and allowing some Jews to go out was the price they would pay. Originally set up by the Poles in exile to help Eastern European Jews, it expanded and in the end helped Jews from the Western nations like the Netherlands to escape. The Nazis did not want Eastern Jews who had seen the full effects of the death camps to survive and testify.
Eventually the program fell apart due to pressure from Swiss diplomats, and from indignant Western diplomats who chaffed at the forged documents. Anti-semitism clearly fueled some of the indignation. At the end of the book there is a telling passage that helps explain the antipathy modern day Poles feel against Russia. As Germany collapsed and was defeated, and as the Iron Curtain was raised Poles felt betrayed many times as treaties and boundaries were ignored, and Poles disappeared into Soviet camps. Some of those who disappeared were the engineers of the exchange program who thought they would return to a free Poland and rebuild after the war.
Eventually the program fell apart due to pressure from Swiss diplomats, and from indignant Western diplomats who chaffed at the forged documents. Anti-semitism clearly fueled some of the indignation. At the end of the book there is a telling passage that helps explain the antipathy modern day Poles feel against Russia. As Germany collapsed and was defeated, and as the Iron Curtain was raised Poles felt betrayed many times as treaties and boundaries were ignored, and Poles disappeared into Soviet camps. Some of those who disappeared were the engineers of the exchange program who thought they would return to a free Poland and rebuild after the war.
