Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds tells the story of a group of Jewish commandos who go around killing Nazi officers for revenge. While the movie is obviously fictional, there were groups of Jewish commandos who operated during and after World War II against the Nazis. Their exploits are not as bloody as the Tarantino movie, but their stories show that reality is just as interesting as fiction. Those three groups were the X Troop, Operation Greenup, and the Nakam. 10 tales real bring these hidden heroes to light.
10 The X Troop
During World War II, the British fielded a distinctive unit called No. 10 (Inter‑Allied) Commando, part of the Special Services Brigade. This formation drew volunteers from many nations—Norway, France, Poland and beyond—who wanted to fight alongside Britain against the Nazis. The most intriguing element of the brigade was No. 3 Troop, famously known as the X Troop.
Unlike its sister troops, the X Troop was a melting pot of nationalities. The “X” denoted “miscellaneous,” because its members didn’t fit neatly into any single national category. Yet they all shared a common thread: they were German‑speaking Jewish refugees, mostly hailing from Germany and Austria.
Because of their unique skill set, the X Troop operated under a veil of secrecy within the broader Allied war effort. In addition to standard commando training, they were taught deep‑penetration tactics for covert raids behind enemy lines—missions no other unit could handle. Many were drawn from other units where commanders recognized their special abilities. Their work was perilous; being both traitors to the German war machine and Jews meant that capture guaranteed a death sentence and could endanger any remaining family still under Nazi occupation. Still, the X Troop resolved to fight.
9 X Troop Fought In Insane Conditions
Only 88 men ever served in the X Troop, and they never operated as a single, cohesive unit. Instead, they were scattered across countless missions deep behind enemy lines. Their assignments often involved solitary night‑time operations, sabotage, and reconnaissance. Their fluency in German, coupled with intimate knowledge of German training and weaponry, made them especially effective.
One notable X Troop operative was Peter Masters, who participated in the D‑Day invasion and later chronicled his wartime experiences. Upon landing, his small team was equipped with a handful of weapons and collapsible bicycles. After the beachhead was secured, Masters’s men pedaled ahead of British troops to scout German positions.
When they approached a German‑occupied village, the British captain ordered the X Troop to draw enemy fire. German soldiers opened fire on the bicycle squad, killing one commando. Masters ducked for cover and found himself face‑to‑face with a young German soldier. Both fired, missing each other. Amid the chaos, British infantry launched a bayonet charge, exploiting the intelligence gathered by Masters’s team. After the skirmish, a bewildered British commander instructed Masters to apologize to the injured German soldiers—a surreal episode that encapsulated the bizarre, high‑stakes world of the X Troop.
8 Accent Shenanigans And Being Captured
Because X Troop missions were tightly classified, operatives had to conceal every facet of their identities. British commanders insisted that their Jewish refugee status remain hidden. All members spoke English with a German‑tinged accent, a potential giveaway to anyone listening. To mask this, each soldier crafted elaborate cover stories explaining their odd accents. Peter Masters, for example, claimed he’d been raised in Vienna by itinerant British salesmen.
The fabricated backgrounds served a practical purpose: if captured, the Nazis would likely execute a Jewish commando without hesitation. Therefore, each operative memorized a false English‑sounding name and an intricate backstory. One such alias was “Peter Masters.”
These deceptions saved the life of an X Troop veteran named George Lane. While leading raids on the French coast before D‑Day, Lane was captured by German troops. Rather than being summarily executed, he was presented to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Sensing danger, Lane pretended he didn’t understand German and told Rommel he was Welsh—explaining his unexpected accent. Rommel accepted the story, and the two engaged in a surprisingly friendly conversation. Lane was then sent to a German POW camp, where he survived the war and lived to recount his tale.
7 Operation Greenup
The British weren’t the only power that recruited Jewish commandos. The United States’ Office of Strategic Services (OSS) also tapped German‑fluent operatives for covert missions behind enemy lines. One such mission, dubbed Operation Greenup, assembled three daring men for a reconnaissance raid.
The team was led by Frederick Mayer, the son of a Jewish‑German World‑I veteran who had emigrated to the United States after the war. Alongside him were Hans Wijnberg, a Dutch Jew who escaped to America in 1938 after his family perished in the Holocaust, and Franz Weber, a German deserter. In February 1945, the trio parachuted near Innsbruck from a modified B‑24, intent on gathering intel on German troop movements.
Mayer, donned in a stolen German uniform, blended into the local populace, frequenting taverns and striking up conversations with loose‑lipped soldiers. He extracted critical information about troop deployments, aircraft production, and even the location of Hitler’s secret Alpine hideout. Meanwhile, Wijnberg hid in an attic, transmitting the gathered intelligence back to Allied command.
6 Captured And Tortured
Operation Greenup’s success prompted higher‑ups to order Mayer to infiltrate a nearby facility producing the revolutionary Me‑262 jet fighter. Posing as an electrician, Mayer discovered the plant wasn’t actually churning out jets due to supply shortages. Unfortunately, his cover was blown, and he was seized by local authorities.
The Gestapo subjected Mayer to a brutal series of interrogations. Initially, they beat him with their hands, then escalated to whipping him with a bullwhip after realizing his resolve. When those methods failed, they resorted to waterboarding, submerging him repeatedly in a pail of water.
Even under such duress, Mayer refused to divulge information. The Gestapo then delivered him to Franz Hofer, the Nazi party boss of the region. Hofer, recognizing the inevitable Allied victory, preferred surrender to the Western forces rather than the Soviets. He permitted Mayer and Wijnberg to negotiate Innsbruck’s surrender, leading to a peaceful handover when U.S. troops arrived.
5 Frederick Mayer Denied The Medal Of Honor
After the war, Frederick Mayer settled into civilian life, but his extraordinary contributions remained largely unacknowledged. Although the OSS nominated him for the United States’ highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, the Army denied his request. The Navy’s version of the Medal of Honor is displayed above for context.
Senator Jay Rockefeller of Wisconsin championed Mayer’s cause, lobbying for proper recognition. In 2013, Rockefeller secured ten medals for Mayer, including the Prisoner of War Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Parachutist Badge, Good Conduct Medal, and Legion of Merit.
In 2014, a White House ceremony honored veterans from World II, Korea, and Vietnam who had previously missed out on the Medal of Honor. Despite renewed advocacy, Mayer’s award remained denied. Rockefeller continues to press for the medal, and many who know of Mayer’s daring deeds argue he deserves full acknowledgment.
4 The Jewish Avengers
When World II concluded, Nazi leaders faced the Nuremberg Trials. Yet many perpetrators escaped justice, either through acquittal or insufficient evidence. This miscarriage of justice spurred a group of Holocaust survivors and Jewish partisans to form an avenging organization known as the Nakam—Hebrew for “avenger.”
The Nakam comprised roughly 60 men who assembled in Bucharest and entered Germany in 1945. During a Passover gathering, Abba Kovner—later celebrated as an unofficial poet of Israel—addressed the assembled survivors, invoking Psalm 94. He warned that if the international tribunals failed to punish the Nazis, the Jews would take vengeance into their own hands.
3 Planned To Kill 6 Million Germans
Initially, the Nakam’s mission focused on assassinating German officers who survived the Nuremberg trials. However, the group soon broadened its scope, seeking retribution against the German populace at large. Their ultimate goal: to kill six million Germans—the same number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Their weapon of choice was poison, supplied by sympathetic Jewish scientists. The plan involved slipping the toxin into the water supplies of five major German cities. Operatives secured counterfeit travel documents to infiltrate occupied zones, aiming to avoid areas under American control.
When the operatives’ ship arrived in France, British authorities discovered the forged documents and the cache of poison. The poison was discarded overboard, sparing the targeted German cities from catastrophe.
2 Poisoned Stalag 13
After the water‑supply scheme collapsed, the Nakam shifted to a smaller, yet still deadly, operation: poisoning the German POW camp Stalag 13, which housed SS officers. Leader Yitzhak Avidav orchestrated infiltration of the camp’s kitchen staff, granting direct access to the prisoners’ meals.
Armed with arsenic, the Nakam poisoned roughly 3,000 loaves of bread on April 14, 1946. German inmates fell ill almost immediately; thousands suffered poisoning, and around 300 died. Although the plan succeeded, the death toll fell short of the group’s broader ambitions, prompting reflection on the limited impact of their revenge.
1 Postwar Intrigue
While the Nakam’s story faded from public awareness, modern research reveals a more intricate picture. Though often portrayed as an independent, rogue organization, surviving members disclosed tacit support from Jewish leaders in Tel Aviv—individuals engaged in establishing a Jewish state.
Abba Kovner sought endorsement from the broader Jewish leadership. Initially, figures such as David Ben‑Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency, opposed the plan, fearing it would jeopardize the nascent state’s legitimacy. Even Chaim Weizmann, future first president of Israel, was aware of the prison‑camp poisoning scheme, though he was not briefed on the larger mass‑poisoning plot. Many historians believe the British intercepted the Nakam’s poison‑transport, prompting the operation’s abandonment.
Decades later, in May 2000, two Nakam members involved in the Stalag 13 poisoning faced prosecution for attempted homicide. A judge ultimately dismissed the charges, citing the statute of limitations.
Zachery Brasier, an avid fan of Tarantino’s work and military history, continues to champion the memory of these daring operatives.