Non­fic­tion

They Dared Return: The True Sto­ry of Jew­ish Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi Germany

Patrick K. O’Donnell

  • Review
By – August 25, 2011

World War II spy sto­ries that pit ulti­mate good against ulti­mate evil, that pit Allies against Nazis, have become part of the Amer­i­can ethos.
Imag­ine how much more excit­ing the sto­ry is when the spies are Jews. The Jews in They Dared Return are young Jew­ish men and women who left Ger­many and enlist­ed in the U.S. Army so that they could fight the Nazis. These spies” were select­ed to go deep behind Nazi Germany’s lines and spy for the Allies. They assumed iden­ti­ties, cre­at­ed spy rings and net­works, on a per­son­al lev­el, they had lovers and became friends.
Patrick K. O’Donnell records the his­to­ry of these unsung heroes. It is a grip­ping tale of Jew­ish Ger­mans who escaped and then returned. Every moment they were behind ene­my lines these peo­ple were in grave dan­ger. And yet, despite the great risks to them­selves and their local recruits, these Jew­ish spies helped defeat the Nazis. Their true sto­ry would make a great movie.

Mic­ah D. Halpern is a colum­nist and a social and polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor. He is the author of What You Need To Know About: Ter­ror, and main­tains The Mic­ah Report at www​.mic​ah​halpern​.com.

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