Between 1940 and 1943, a group of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists created a secret programme to forge and smuggle Latin American identity documents. Their aim? To help thousands of Jews escape extermination in the Holocaust. Historian and author Roger Moorhouse speaks to Lauren Good about this risky rescue mission – one of the largest of the Second World War – which has been almost entirely forgotten.

(Ad) Roger Moorhouse is the author of The Forgers: The Forgotten Story of the Holocaust’s Most Audacious Rescue Operation (Bodley Head, 2023). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fthe-forgers%2Froger-moorhouse%2F9781847926760%23%3A~%3Atext%3DThe%20inspirational%20story%20of%20the%2Calmost%20completely%20unknown%20%2D%20humanitarian%20operation.

The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices