A new book has shed light on the heroic work of Polish diplomats who forged identity documents that allowed Jews to escape German-occupied Europe.

From 1940 to 1943, a small group embarked upon a systematic programme to create papers that would enable those persecuted under Nazi rule to flee to Latin America.

Led by Polish ambassador Aleksander Lados, they managed to save the lives of thousands of Jews facing internment and death.

While the story of the Lados group is already known, The Forgers, by Roger Moorhouse, unveils the comprehensive history of a project that has remained obscure.

After the occupation and partition of Poland in 1939, the nation’s government in exile took over its network of diplomatic posts.

In Switzerland, Lados, consular secretary Stefan Ryniewicz, vice-consul Konstanty Rokicki, and Juliusz Kühl, a Jewish attaché of the Polish Legation developed a plan to create false passports. 

They worked alongside Jewish figures including Zionist activist Abraham Silberschein and leading Agudat Israel figure Chain Yisroel Eiss.

The group bought blank documents from a Paraguayan honorary consul in the city in the hope that individuals holding them could be exchanged by the German government for German nationals in Latin America.

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The Forgers (Photo: Bookcover)

At least 1,056 of these passports were issued between 1941 and 1943, later research has revealed, with thousands of further documents allowing almost 10,000 Jews to avoid deportation.

When the plot was uncovered, Lados and Ryiewicz met with Swiss officials and managed to convince them not to blow the whistle.

Writing for the JC in 2020, Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland discussed how his mother was released from Bergen Belson to be exchanged for a German because she had Paraguayan documents.

“I did know the passport was obtained in Bern in Switzerland by a friend of my grandfather’s,” he wrote. 

“What I did not know, because it was not generally known, was that it came from a brave and successful effort by a group of Poles to save thousands of Jews.”

He added: “I do know this. Without the Lados Group my mother would not have survived. She would have gone to Auschwitz or Sobibor. 

“Or she would have died of disease and hunger in the last moths of Belsen. As it was my grandmother starved to death on the night of freedom. But these heroes saved her little girls.”

Moorhouse's book has just been released in the UK.