Why these prisoners of war wished they never escaped 'from the bloody train'

Historian and bookseller Edmund Goldrick on the hair-raising, forgotten tale of the escaped Australian prisoners of war who stumbled into another, hidden genocide, and tried to stop it.

Early in the World War Two, Australian soldiers who had been captured by the Germans escaped by leaping from a moving train.

They found themselves in unfamiliar territory, in the lands of Yugoslavia.

The Australians on the run found themselves in the company of dangerous men, who planned to use the cover of war to commit genocide.

One of the Australians fell in with a Serbian Royalist group, and when he discovered their leader’s plans, he acted as a double agent in their ranks, determined to find a way to warn the Allies that their man in Serbia was determined to conduct mass murder.

Anzac Guerillas is published by Hachette.

Edmund will be giving a talk on Remembrance Day at the Goulburn Library, and again on Saturday, 6 December at Sydney's Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores war, POWs, Germany, former Yugoslavia, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Catholic, Orthodox, Roma people, Jewish, Islamic, Chetniks, Partisans, genocide, civil war, death, escape, spies, double agents, allied forces, war crimes, international war tribunal, guerilla warfare, murder, assassination, holocaust, Italy, Greece, fascism, tyranny, Bosnia, Nazi, Hitler.

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.