The Brigade - Howard Blum

'We came as an angel of life to the Jewish people... Soldiers are supposed to fight, kill, or be killed, and what we did as soldiers, we found dead people and helped them go back to life.'
November 1944. The war in Europe is drawing to a close when the British government finally agrees to send a brigade of 5,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine to Europe to fight the German Army. Among those soldiers are Israel Carmi, a veteran of the Haganah underground; Johanan Peltz, who dreams of returning home as British Army officer; and Arie Pinchuk, a former student, who has returned to Europe to rescue his last remaining family member, the little sister he left behind.
The Brigade charge into battle and emerge triumphant, but when the war ends and the soldiers witness firsthand the horrors their people have suffered in the concentration camps, they launch a brutal and calculating campaign of vengeance, forming secret squads to identify, locate and kill Nazi officers in hiding. Their own ferocity threatens to overwhelm them until an encounter with an orphan girl sets the men on a course of action - rescuing Jewish war orphans and transporting them to Palestine - that will not only change their lives, but also forever alter the course of history.

Twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, Blum is currently a contributing editor to VANITY FAIR and author of five acclaimed non fiction books, including THE GOLD OF EXODUS.