Arnhem Lift: A German Jew in the Glider Pilot Regiment

Of the 10,000 men who landed at Arnhem, over nine days 1,400 were killed and more than 6,000 a
about a third of them wounded a
were captured. It wasa bloody disaster. The remarkable Louis Hagen, an a enemy aliena
who had escaped to England having been imprisoned and tortured in a Nazi concentration camp as a boy just a few years earlier, was one of the minority who made it back. What makes this book so unforgettable is not only the breathtaking drama of the story itself, it is the unmistakable talent of the writer. a Our huts had been locked and left just as they were when we left them on Monday morning. We took the keys, went in and sat down on our beds. The four of us looked round the hut. There were eighteen empty beds. It was very quiet now…The narrative was first published anonymously in 1945. 45 years later at a dinner party in Germany, Louis Hagen met Major Winrich Behr, Adjutant to Field Marshal Model at Arnhem. Louis added his side of the story to add even more insight to the original work.

One of the most moving pages yet written about the conflict a | tells its story with modern simplicity and unaffectedness. The Sunday Times

As a chronicle of action Arnhem Lift is the best of its kind. It has integrity as well as drama. The Listener

He tells the story of his part in that heroic struggle against overwhelming odds straightforwardly and without a trace of egoism. The Scotsman

Distils experience with a precision which every writer must admire. New Statesman