Patrick K. O’Donnell explores one of the most intriguing stories out of World War II - clandestine operations led by ex-German Jews against Nazi Germany – in his book They Dared Return: The Untold Story of Jewish Spies behind the Lines in Nazi Germany.
The book generally describes the planning and execution of several operations conducted by the American Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency) against the Nazis in German-occupied Austria and Yugoslavia. The operations centered around a group of Jewish soldiers who were German expatriates and who wanted to help the Allies defeat Nazi Germany – most of them had family members in the concentration camps. O’Donnell focuses mainly on Operation Greenup – an effort to find out about and try to thwart the Nazis’ plan to build a heavily fortified area for their last stand against the Allies.
