“German Schoolboy, British Commando” by Helen Fry tells the extraordinary true story of Claus Ascher, a German Jewish boy who escaped Nazi Germany and became Colin Anson, a British Commando. Fleeing after his father’s death, Anson joined the elite X-Troop, a unit of German-speaking refugees crucial to Allied intelligence. This gripping account details Anson’s dangerous missions, including landings in Sicily and Italy, his near-fatal injury, and his determined return to fight in Yugoslavia. Beyond the battlefield, the book explores Anson’s personal journey, his search for his mother in post-war Frankfurt, and his confrontation with his father’s betrayer, offering a powerful narrative of courage, resilience, and the complexities of revenge and forgiveness. Fry, a renowned historian, meticulously recreates Anson’s world, making this a compelling read for anyone interested in WWII history and the human spirit.
German Schoolboy, British Commando
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After his fathers death in 1937 at the hands of the Gestapo, Claus Ascher, a German Jew, managed to flee to Britain where he subsequently joined the British Army and changed his name to Colin Anson.
During the Second World War Anson was one of around a hundred German refugees to be trained in the British Commando unit known as 3 Troop or X-Troop. Attached to the Royal Marine Commandos, Colin took part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943 where his ship received a direct hit from a German plane. Surviving a life-threatening head wound when shrapnel penetrated his skull, he underwent brain surgery in a field ambulance.
After nine months of recuperation and further brain operations, Colin was determined to fight again. He returned to his Commando unit to fight in the Yugoslav islands in protection of Tito and the partisans, becoming the first Allied soldier to liberate Corfu.
After the war, he asked to be stationed in Frankfurt so he might find his mother, a German Protestant who had survived the war in Germany. In Frankfurt, he worked as part of Field Intelligence Agency Technical and was in a position to trace the man who had betrayed his father to the Nazis. Having discovered his name and whereabouts, he made a conscious decision not to take revenge.
German Schoolboy, British Commando is an extraordinary portrait of bravery and determination.
Helen Fry is an honorary research fellow in the Department of Hebrew & Jewish Studies at University College, London. She has also written The King’s Most Loyal Enemy Aliens, Freud’s War and the forthcoming Building the Peace . She lives in London.
