Striking back

by Peter Masters

In all probability, the Nazis' greatest enemies were Jews who gave up everything but their lives to flee the deadly persecution they were enduring in Germany, Austria, and Eastern Europe. Unknowm to everyone except military personnel with a "need to know," eighty-seven of these escapees were recruited into a commando unit in the British Army unlike any othercomprised almost entirely of Jewish refugees. Author Peter Masters, born Peter Arany, was an Austrian Jew who, following the Anschluss, fled from his home in Vienna to England. During the invasion scare following the fall of France in June 1940, Peter, along with many other refugees, was rounded up as an enemy alien and placed in an internment camp. Later, following his release from the camp, Peter enlisted in the British Army. At first, restricted to an unarmed labor battalion, the young man continously volunteered for combat duty only to be turned down again and again. Then, the commandos came looking for native German speakers to