The Manila Poker Club: Eisenhower, Quezon, and the Plan to Harbor Europe's Jews in the Philippines

In the late 1930s, as the Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany and Austria intensified, five distinguished gentlemen met half a world away for regular late-night poker games. What began as an excuse to drink whiskey, smoke cigars, and discuss the political events of the day resulted in an ambitious plan to rescue as many Jewish refugees as possible from the clutches of Hitler's Gestapo.

This small group of men in Manila—Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, Philippine president Manuel L. Q...