The Aberdovey X-Troopers

Available for 35 days

This programme relates the incredible yet little-known tale of the group of Jewish elite commandos who were housed and trained in a small Welsh village to assist the British and allied forces during the Second World War. Settled in the village of Aberdovey, Gwynedd, the troop was trained by a charismatic, eccentric and brilliant Welshman by the name of Bryan Hilton-Jones, and fully supported by Winston Churchill who was keen to recruit German-speaking soldiers in the fight against the Nazi war machine. The commandos would go on to take part in some of the most daring - in some cases, near suicidal - missions that saw them confusing, infiltrating and, ultimately, fighting the regime that had terrorised and murdered their families and fellow Jews in their home countries across central and eastern Europe. Counter to the oft-repeated narrative that the Jews were undefiant in the face of the Nazis' planned - and very nearly successful - genocide of European Jews, this sometimes dark, often humorous and relentlessly human story talks to historians to bring a fascinating piece of Welsh/European history into the light. Lighter moments in the programme recount how the Welsh experience would play to advantage for some of the men, one such example concerning commando 'George Lane' who was captured by the Germans in France. Interrogated by German officers, Lane 'figured they might just detect a Hungarian speaking English, but never a Hungarian superimposing a Welsh accent on top of that. The programme marks 80 years since the liberation of the concentration camps and commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day.