Air Force Auschwitz-Birkenau Flyover [will happen tommorow by Israeli fighters]

Israel National News ^ | 16:03 Sep 03, '03 / 6 Elul 5763

[yonif]

(IsraelNN.com) Tomorrow Israeli Air Force pilots will fly over the extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. At the same time, a ceremony will take place at Auschwitz where the names of victims of the transport that arrived at Auschwitz on September 4, 1943 will be read. At the request of the Israeli Air Force delegation to Poland, Yad Vashem workers searched the Hall of Names for Pages of Testimony for individuals who were murdered on the same day, 60 years prior to the delegation’s trip.

Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, commented on the significance of the event:

Å“The sight of Israeli planes flying over Auschwitz is a tragic reminder that allied planes flew over Auschwitz in 1944 and could have bombed the gas chambers, but instead bombed only the adjacent oil factories. The Roosevelt administration knew about the mass murder of Jews in Auschwitz, but did not order US planes to bomb the gas chambers, largely because saving Jews would have resulted in more pressure to let the refugees come to the United States.

The Air Force delegation is visiting Poland to honor the Polish Air Force in its 85th year. Prior to its return to Israel, the Israeli delegation will perform a flyover of Auschwitz-Birkenau comprised of three F-15 jets. The flyover represents an integral part of the IDF ceremony, which is in the framework of the project “Witnesses in Uniform.”

During Yad Vashem’s computerized search in its Hall of Names, it was discovered that all of the victims from September 4 arrived at Auschwitz from a transport from Drancy, France that had departed two days earlier (Sept. 2, 1943). 661 of the individuals were sent to their immediate death in the gas chambers within hours of their arrival.

The following are the names taken from Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names that will be read at the ceremony. The actual Pages of Testimony will be in the planes that will fly over the ceremony at the same time.

Sylvain Schnerb, born in Colmar, France, aged 64 Mercado Cohen, born in Istanbul, aged 79 Camille Amar, born in Algeria, aged 44 and children Robert, aged 16, Jacqueline, aged 14, and Silviane, aged 12, all born in France Georges Sasportes, born in Algeria, aged 54 Children of the Atlanti family: Jacqueline, aged 4, Andre, aged 11, Raymond, aged 16 and their parents: Louise, 39 and David, 56. Bernard Kramer, born in Strasbourg, France, aged 20 Elise Abastado, born in Salonika, Greece, aged 56 Leon Loeb, born in Strasbourg, France, aged 38 Gabriel Levy, born in Belfort, France, aged 48 Donna Hasson, born in Istanbul, aged 44 Lea Khoutman, aged 66 and husband, Srowl-Leib, aged 77 both born in Poland Rosa Hoppen-Waldhorn, born in Lasina, Czechoslovakia, aged 56

The head of the delegation, Brig.-Gen. Amir Eschel said, “The Germans and those that helped them tried not only to systematically destroy the Jews, but also to erase all traces of the victims and of the murder itself. In commemorating the victims by reading their names, we attempt to redeem the victims from the ruins and give them back their names and faces.”

Eschel will give a short speech from his plane during the ceremony.

Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names currently holds over 2 million Pages of Testimony, all of which have been digitally scanned. Yad Vashem is taking great strides to digitize all names stored in its databases; until today 3.2 million names have been added to the digitized list. In spring 2004, Yad Vashem will upload the entire list of names to the Internet, allowing international access to the database and the ability for every individual to search for names and to fill out Pages of Testimony via the Internet.

[yonif]

The 3 Fighter Planes.

[sam_paine]

The Roosevelt administration knew about the mass murder of Jews in Auschwitz, but did not order US planes to bomb the gas chambers, largely because saving Jews would have resulted in more pressure to let the refugees come to the United States.

This is complete crap.

[Skooz]

This is complete crap.

Yes, it is.

[yonif]

At the request of the Israeli Air Force delegation to Poland, Yad Vashem workers searched the Hall of Names for Pages of Testimony for individuals who were murdered on the same day, 60 years prior to the delegation’s trip.

Also today, the administration of the museum at that death camp criticized the flyover that will occur saying that "we criticize the showing of the power of Israel's army in this location" (Israeli media quotes Reuters).

[SpyGuy]

"The sight of Israeli planes flying over Auschwitz is a tragic reminder that allied planes flew over Auschwitz in 1944 and could have bombed the gas chambers, but instead bombed only the adjacent oil factories."

Now Nazi Germany and the death camps are the fault of the United States. I'm sure the next step is an extortion demand for "reparations".

Where will this "Blame America" bullcrap end? We're damned if we do, damned if we don't. Perhaps we should just let the rest of the world be damned.

[Imal]

“The sight of Israeli planes flying over Auschwitz is a tragic reminder that allied planes flew over Auschwitz in 1944 and could have bombed the gas chambers, but instead bombed only the adjacent oil factories. The Roosevelt administration knew about the mass murder of Jews in Auschwitz, but did not order US planes to bomb the gas chambers, largely because saving Jews would have resulted in more pressure to let the refugees come to the United States.

I have seen this claim made before, but never substantiated. While I find it extremely unlikely that the U.S. and Britain did not know about the death camps early in the war, the notion that they avoided bombing them as part of some sort of strategy favoring complicity in murdering Jews is outrageous and slander of the worst sort, unless it is backed up by some hard facts.

Do you know of or have any links to sources that provide some factual basis for this claim? Please post if you do.

Todah rabah.

[judicial meanz]

"tragic reminder that allied planes flew over Auschwitz in 1944 and could have bombed the gas chambers, but instead bombed only the adjacent oil factories." They didnt have the technology to make a pinpoint strike in 1944 that could have hit the gas chambers and nothing else. The usual WWII bombing raid was a carpet bombing of a designated target in an area.

[SJackson]

The first two directly address Auschwitz, the others have background. Although the Roosevelt administration wasn’t anxious to address the problem, the real underlying issue was tactical, could assets be diverted to bomb railways without slowing the progress of the war, not a issue of FDR being complicit in the murder of Jews.

Could The Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz-Birkenau?

Plea to Bomb the Railway Lines Leading to Auschwitz

Immigration & Refugee Policy During WWII

U.S. Policy During WWII

[SJackson]

The more practical suggestions were to bomb the rail lines (an ongoing process, they're repairable), slowing deportations to the camps and forcing the Nazis to use less efficient methods of extermination at the source.

[Norse]

The fact is, because this article blames the U.S. essentially, the entire thing is a piece of garbage.

[Skooz]

Exactly. The "nazis exterminated millions as USA stood by and did nothing" nonsense chaps my hide.

We DID do something. It was called World War II. We blew up the freaking planet. We killed millions of Germans. We liberated camps. We bombed Germany into the stone age. No enemy in modern times has been so utterly defeated as Germany in April 1945. It ceased to exist as a nation. It's destruction was total. And the path to Germany was stained with Allied blood from Moscow, from Normandy, from Anzio, from the Ukraine, and from North Africa.

[Imal]

Thanks for the links. I have seen quite a bit of other information related to this subject, and note with sadness the tremendous difficulties and tragedies that befell Jews attempting to flee Germany and Europe during the 1930's.

The point of contention here is the accusation that the Allies specifically avoided attempting to halt or reduce the rate of concentration camp deaths to reduce the number of Jewish refugees that allies would need to deal with after the war.

To date, I have seen a lot of opinions and speculation on the matter, but nothing conclusive enough to support such accusations. I am aware that this happens to be Dr. Medoff's area of expertise, and that he has documented the shocking behavior of the Roosevelt administration's "indifference" (characterized by active obstruction, in many cases) toward efforts to save Jews from Hitler's Final Solution in his books.

However, despite his research and conclusions on the matter, which are assuredly damning, I still think comments like the one made in this article are counterproductive in this context, and should be scrupulously supported with evidence provided alongside the accusations wherever possible. While I can understand his bitterness in light of his work, a comment like this on such an occasion seems out of place, at best, even if it may be 100% true. Let's not forget who did the killing.

Most Americans do not wish to be branded as complicit with Nazi genocide without some pretty solid proof, and I am one of them. On the "bright" side, however, Dr. Medoff may have just sold a few more books.

[judicial meanz]

Absolutely...but then they just could have diverted the internees to other camps...it was a catch-22.


I forget the actual number, but there were plenty of other camps in the region that could have taken up the executions if Auschwitz had been bombed. Sobibor, Treblinka, etc

[yonif]

Some people say they should have bombed camps, even though they would have killed everyone (including prisoners) who were in there, however, it would spare the camp continuing to exterminate more and more Jews by being able to operate.

Also, as SJackson has stated, there is debate over whether or not the Allies could have bombed the railroad lines.

[JG52blackman]

Michael Medved on a radio show a while back made the claim that Roosevelt needed the backing of an antiSemetic congressman to push his domestic agenda and therefore did not bomb the railway depots where the Jews were loaded for their trips to the death camps. The military had actually identified these places and offered to bomb them but FDR refused. Even before the war Hitler had offered to allow any Jew to emigrate to any country that would grant them visas. FDR refused to do this also. There was a movie called Voyage of the Damned about a whole shipload of these people who wound up in the camps and presumably died because FDR wouldn't grant visas. This article is not anti-USA it is anti-FDR. FDR is also responsible for the deaths of over 2 million refugees who were repatriated into the loving arms of Joe Stalin after the war was over. He made secret agreements with Stalin to this effect in addition to giving him Eastern Europe. I am confident that FDR burns in Hell with Hitler and Stalin.

[Salem]

"...the administration of the museum at that death camp criticized the flyover that will occur saying that 'we criticize the showing of the power of Israel's army in this location'"

Oh, too damn bad. After they do the official flyover in somber fashion, those IDF fighter jocks should come back around in full afterburn and buzz the place at mach 2, forty feet off the deck, and bust every window in the place.

Protest that. Every Jew worth their salt would be cheering in the streets.

I think it is very appropriate. I think it is poetic justice/irony that sixty years later the Jewish nation will be fielding flyers of this skill and capacity (representatives of the best in the Israeli Defense Forces) in tactical fighter planes that are top of the line in the world, over an area that still remains almost the blackest in human history, if not the lowest in Jewish history.

The irony is mindnumbing....

[Alouette]

After they do the official flyover in somber fashion, those IDF fighter jocks should come back around in full afterburn and buzz the place at mach 2, forty feet off the deck, and bust every window in the place.

And then, on the way home, they can drop off a payload over Gaza.

[RightWhale]

Is it true the IAF overflew Damascus recently, in particular the president's compound, while he was there?

[SJackson]

I read that sentence in the article as relating two disconnected facts, not bombing the rails and the opposition to Jewish immigration, rather than an accusation that the Allies specifically avoided attempting to halt or reduce the rate of concentration camp deaths to reduce the number of Jewish refugees , imo a vile, unfounded accusation. On rereading the article, I suspect your interpritation is right.

[rightofrush]

I am confident that FDR burns in Hell with Hitler and Stalin.

Perhaps in a lower level.