Who were the Jews who secretly fought the Nazis? Find out in our new eight-week series where we explore the operations that helped defeat Nazism in Europe – from covert commandos, to master forgers, to little-known rescuers – with a particular focus on the contributions of Jewish refugees to the Allied war effort. This is the first series under our new partnership with the Lyons Learning Project and has been programmed in association with Insiders/Outsiders.
Events begin at 8pm. You can register for the whole series or book separately for individual talks. Streaming links will be sent out shortly before each event. See below for full details.
JR has an ethical ticketing policy and is offering free tickets to these events, but if you can afford it, please donate to support our work. We are proposing denominations of 18 – the numerical value of the Hebrew word 'chai', meaning 'life'.
Thursday 28 October
This is Not Propaganda
Journalist Peter Pomerantsev has devoted much of his career to spreading light on disinformation, recently investigating the online activities of everyone from Twitter revolutionaries to Trump in his book, This is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality. In the first event in our Spies, Lies and Secret Missions series he’ll share his latest, as yet unpublished research, which focuses on British covert anti-Nazi propaganda – something that often relied on the insights of Jewish refugees.
Thursday 4 November
X Troop: The Refugees Who Fought the Nazis
Forget Inglourious Basterds, Leah Garrett is here to reveal the true story behind the real-life Jewish commandos who wreaked havoc against the Nazis during WWII. As detailed in her latest book, X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II, Churchill arranged to have the clandestine X Troop unit (also known as a suicide squad), formed of Jewish refugees, trained in counterintelligence and advanced combat to aid the British war effort.
Thursday 11 November
The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II
Writer Helen Fry sheds light on the little-known story of how top-ranking German generals were tricked into revealing some of Hitler’s most important secrets. A few days before the start of World War II, MI6 bugged German prisoners’ cells and tasked a workforce – many of whom were German Jewish refugees – to record and transcribe these private conversations. In her book, The Walls Have Ears, Fry uncovers the inner workings of the bugging scheme used at three secret sites: Trent Park in north London, and Buckinghamshire’s Latimer House and Wilton Park. Fry will also touch on research for her newest book, Spymaster: The Man Who Saved MI6, published by Yale University Press in October.
Thursday 18 November
From ‘Enemy Aliens’ to Secret Weapons: German Refugees and the War Effort
German-speaking refugees were involved in every aspect of British propaganda: for the Ministry of Information, the BBC and for intelligence organisations such as Electra House, Special Ops and Political Warfare Executives. Professor Charmian Brinson explores the paradoxical importance of ‘enemy aliens’ to the war effort, particularly how the foreign civil servants engaged with covert materials about their countries of origin, now designated enemy territory. She will reveal more, as detailed in her new book Working for the War Effort: German-Speaking Refugees in British Propaganda During the Second World War.
Thursday 25 November
Fooling Hitler: Operation Mincemeat
In 1943, a secret British operation gambled on the careful positioning of a corpse and a briefcase full of forged documents. Retold first by journalist Ben Macintyre, then as a West End musical by SpitLip Theatre – and soon to be released as a film starring Colin Firth – this tale of deception will be the subject of our lively discussion. Formulated by Jewish judge and Royal Navy intelligence officer Ewen Montagu, Operation Mincemeat changed the course of World War II. We are delighted to be joined by members of the Montagu family for an inside look at this all-important mission, as well as writer, actor, comedian and singer Natasha Hodgson, who has adapted the story into a musical, in which she also performs.
Thursday 2 December
The Essential Link: The Story of Wilfrid Israel
Wilfrid Israel, owner of the largest department store in Berlin in the 1930s and a major art collector, played an important role in the rescue of thousands of Jews from Nazi Germany, yet remains almost a complete enigma. Why is so little known of this figure? Join us for a screening of The Essential Link: The Story of Wilfrid Israel*, which uncovers his remarkable story and the reason it has disappeared from history. Followed by a discussion, featuring director Yonatan Nir and Jonathan Oppenheimer, who appears in the documentary and whose family were rescued by Israel. Plus a Q&A.
*Please note that a link to stream the film online will be sent out on the Monday prior for you to watch before the discussion.
Thursday 9 December
Elizabeth: The Jewish Refugee in Charge of Black Propaganda
Discover the story of one of history’s most intriguing typographers, Elizabeth Friedlander, in a screening of Katharine Meynell’s short film Elizabeth. It tells of an accomplished designer, who was born into an affluent Jewish family in Berlin, 1903, but had to flee Nazi persecution, taking only her mother’s 18th-century Klotz violin and her portfolio. Once in London, she met Francis Meynell (grandfather of Katharine) who helped her get work and by 1942 she was in charge of design at the Ministry of Information’s ‘black’ (covert) propaganda unit, where she forged Wehrmacht and Nazi rubber stamps, false ration books and more. She is best known for designing the eponymous typeface Elizabeth for the Bauer Type Foundry, which is still used all over the world today and would have been called Friedlander were it not for the rise of the Nazi Party. The screening will be followed by a discussion between the director and Julia Weiner, director of content for Liberal Arts and associate professor of Art History at Regents University, plus a Q&A.
Thursday 16 December
The Portuguese Schindler: The Life and Legacy of Aristides de Sousa Mendes
Join members of the US-based de Sousa Mendes Foundation as we honour the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes. We will discover the extent of his efforts to help save thousands of Jews during the war, which are only now being recognised. Despite Portugal, under Fascist dictator Salazar, siding with Germany during World War II, he issued visas to refugees in France fleeing the Nazi regime. Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer has described Sousa Mendes’ mission as “perhaps the largest rescue action by a single individual during the Holocaust.”
