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Why didn't the Allies bomb Auschwitz?
BBC ^ | 23/01/05 | Matthew Davis

Posted on 01/23/2005 4:45:07 AM PST by Jakarta ex-pat

It is one of the enduring controversies of World War II.

By the summer of 1944, detailed information about the true nature of the death camps had reached the West, but it was not until months later that Auschwitz was finally liberated by the advancing Red Army.

During that time, thousands more had perished in the gas chambers.

Whether a precision strike was militarily possible or would have been effective in halting the killings is still hotly contested.

But many - including survivors of the camp - say the Allies should have acted whatever the mission's chances of success.

The debate also leads to wider questions of why more was not done around the world to save the Jews from Nazi persecution.

Information about Auschwitz reached new levels of detail following the escapes of two prisoners in April 1944, and two more a month later.

Their combined testimonies formed the basis of documents known as the Auschwitz Protocols.

By June 1944, Jewish groups were imploring both US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill to bomb the rail lines or the gas chambers in order to put a stop to the killing.

But arguments rumbled on throughout the summer.

Military commanders said a precision strike had almost no chance of success. However, no thorough study of the issue was made.

Proposals to drop weapons into the camp to enable a rebellion were briefly considered but abandoned.

Recently published reconnaissance images show the British photographed the camp from the air in August that year - suggesting that by 1944 the RAF had the capability to reach Auschwitz with bombers.

However, with Allied troops moving through Normandy after D-Day and the Red Army at the gates of Warsaw in 1944, some believed the best way to destroy the death camps was to use all military resources to crush the enemy.

Laurence Rees - writer and producer of the BBC's Auschwitz series - says the lack of proper consideration given to bombing the camp and a "dismissive tone" in some of the documents of the time give the sense that "no-one was bothered enough to make bombing Auschwitz a priority".

"If they were exterminating British prisoners of war do we seriously think that we wouldn't have done all we could to stop it?" he asks.

But Rees also says that dwelling on the bombing of Auschwitz, where the killings stopped in November 1944, is a distraction from the "far more important question" of why the Allies failed to do more to save the Jews from Nazi persecution.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) - named after a death camp survivor who became a Nazi-hunter - says the Allies failed to take practical steps that could have helped many of Hitler's victims.

The SWC says the UK and the US could have relaxed stringent immigration policies to allow refugees a safe haven, and sent frequent and unequivocal warnings to Germany that its leaders would be held accountable.

But while no-one blames anyone other than the Nazis for the horrors of the Holocaust, the debate over what could or should have been done seems certain to continue.

In the words of Auschwitz survivor Kitty Hart-Moxon: "Being the worst example, the Holocaust is central to understanding the causes of the genocides that have occurred in many parts of the world since the end of the World War II."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Israel
KEYWORDS: auschwitz; camps; holocaust; jews; nazis; ww2
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1 posted on 01/23/2005 4:45:07 AM PST by Jakarta ex-pat
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
A better question today is why don't we bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.
2 posted on 01/23/2005 4:46:16 AM PST by elhombrelibre (Liberalism is proof that intelligent people can ignore as much as the ignorant.)
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To: elhombrelibre

We'll do it - if only to avoid Israel forcing our hand.


3 posted on 01/23/2005 4:49:44 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: elhombrelibre

Actually it's the same question -- and the same question as "Why did it take 12 years for anybody to get around to doing anything about Iraq after Gulf War I?"

Politics, and the daily prayer that magic would solve the problem without anybody having to do anything ... and the continuing insistence that the good guys were lying and nothing was actually going on that was wrong.


4 posted on 01/23/2005 4:49:45 AM PST by KateatRFM
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To: Jakarta ex-pat

Some day history will look back at our times and question why the world didn't do more about the muslims preaching the same sort of rhetoric and trying to commit genocide on Israel.


5 posted on 01/23/2005 4:54:08 AM PST by tkathy (Tyranny breeds terrorism. Freedom breeds peace.)
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To: Jakarta ex-pat

Sometimes the "historical" review that assigns the military capabilities of today, to a war 60 yrs ago is almost laughable. (If not tragic) What is this, some sort of lame attempt to drive a wedge between Israel and U.S.


6 posted on 01/23/2005 4:56:16 AM PST by marty60
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
With Allied troops moving through Normandy after D-Day and the Red Army at the gates of Warsaw in 1944, some believed the best way to destroy the death camps was to use all military resources to crush the enemy. -Matthew Davis

I believe this to be the case. I do not disparage anyone who debates the morality or effectiveness of any past military campaign. But there is a tendency to leap to a postmodern stance, finding class discrimination, at the expensive of clear-eyed analysis.

7 posted on 01/23/2005 4:56:24 AM PST by NutCrackerBoy
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To: tkathy
muslims preaching the same sort of rhetoric...

It gave me a shiver while watching the recent PBS Auschwitz program: there was a poignant moment from the 1st episode, when interviewing an SS guy. He clearly has remorse now, but was describing his thinking when he was in his 20's and doing the killing. he said that he grew up to hate (based on news of the day and the education system that raised him), so it was no problem for him morally. It clearly parallels exactly, at least for me, the education system today in Gaza/WB and probably alot more of the arab world.

8 posted on 01/23/2005 5:00:19 AM PST by C210N
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
Mathew Davis is an idiot and this stupid statement is just another illustration:

"Recently published reconnaissance images show the British photographed the camp from the air in August that year - suggesting that by 1944 the RAF had the capability to reach Auschwitz with bombers."

Flying a lone aircraft with a camera in 1944 was a far different technological accomplishment than flying into same war zone with bombers. Mathew Davis is a complete fool to make that stupid "suggestion".

9 posted on 01/23/2005 5:04:39 AM PST by QwertyKPH
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
Military commanders said a precision strike had almost no chance of success. However, no thorough study of the issue was made.

Uh, that's because a "study" wasn't needed--the military commanders knew the capabilities of their bombers and one of those capabilities was not precision. That's why we'd send hundreds of bombers each carrying a dozen bombs to hit one target. And then have to send them again to hit the same target again a few weeks later. Drop enough and somebody was going to hit that darn ball-bearing plant. And too bad about everybody else in the vicinity of the target; a lot of the WWII damaged & destroyed cities we see in old films was based on the inability of our planes to conduct a "precision strike" on the local RR yard or ammo factory or Wehrmacht barracks. No GPS guided cruise missile or laser guided bomb was around back then. Our air force was a very blunt instrument.

10 posted on 01/23/2005 5:06:48 AM PST by mark502inf
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To: mark502inf

The UK never made any pretence of trying to precision bomb. The rational was that if the workers were dead and the local infrastructure destroyed then the factory couldn't function.


11 posted on 01/23/2005 5:11:57 AM PST by weegie
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
I'm not quite clear what was supposed to happen if the Allies bombed the gas chambers.

Would the Nazi concentration camp leadership be killed? If they survived, and the chambers were destroyed, would they ignore the orders to exterminate the prisoners? Wouldn't they just substitute firing squads or bayonets?

"Precision bombing" via aircraft in World War 2... How? Dive bomber? Bombs weren't guided by lasers, heat or satellite and hitting a building in a prison camp would be like hitting a dime with a bucket of paint. The dime will get hit, but so will everything else around it. Dropping bombs on prison camps is bad policy.

This has got to be one of the most foolish non- Helen Thomas article I have ever read.

Thanks for posting it! I would have laughed if it weren't for the tin foil hatters who will use it as evidence that America is evil.

APf
12 posted on 01/23/2005 5:15:00 AM PST by APFel (The left are to people as wolves are to sheep.)
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
OK, so correct me if I'm wrong, but 1) The complete and total depravity of the Nazis behavior in "death camps" was not completely understood until such death camps were revealed to be extermination centers 2) There was also the possibility that the other camps may have simply been prison camps and contained innocent civilians who were not being systematically exterminated 3) Bombing possible civilian retention centers or POW camps is unwise in any case.

No one wanted to see these horrors committed and carried out even further once they were initially revealed. We did as much as we could at a time when it was questionable if we could even overcome the Nazis and we were still trying to fight the Japanese.

The lesson here is 1) NEVER accept Socialism 2) NEVER allow yourself to be disarmed, and if you are, either slaughter the oppressor or leave 3) NEVER AGAIN.

We have much bigger problems, people. IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN!

What are we going to do about it?

Those who wish us to fail will dwell in the past and try to divert our attention.

This who really want to do something worth while will actively engage EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS right now and stop the bleeding before it gets out of control.

Socialists are a disease upon mankind that can only be surpassed in utter and complete depravity by Communists.

13 posted on 01/23/2005 5:15:35 AM PST by Caipirabob (Democrats.. Socialists..Commies..Traitors...Who can tell the difference?)
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To: NutCrackerBoy
some believed the best way to destroy the death camps was to use all military resources to crush the enemy.

One of those "some" was Eisenhower. As a young officer in Panama, his boss forced him to read Clausewitz over & over. The Clausewitzian concept is that if you destroy the enemy's army first, then all your other war objectives suddenly become very easy.

14 posted on 01/23/2005 5:16:05 AM PST by mark502inf
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To: C210N

Every time that the cowardly, intellectually dishonest MSM suppresses islamic hate-jews, blame-jews rhetoric, they do a terrible disservice to both the muslims and the entire free world.


15 posted on 01/23/2005 5:20:02 AM PST by tkathy (Tyranny breeds terrorism. Freedom breeds peace.)
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To: C210N

Probably?


16 posted on 01/23/2005 5:22:37 AM PST by marty60
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To: marty60

Bump to what you said.


17 posted on 01/23/2005 5:24:30 AM PST by Popman
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
"while no-one blames anyone other than the Nazis..." Why, of course not (
18 posted on 01/23/2005 5:24:39 AM PST by Kerfuffle
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To: QwertyKPH
Flying a lone aircraft with a camera in 1944 was a far different technological accomplishment than flying into same war zone with bombers.

Reconnaissance aircraft were stripped of all armament to save weight, adding to their speed and range. The British used the De Havilland Mosquito as an unarmed long range photo reconnaissance aircraft, and it might have been used for the photos.

Mathew Davis is a complete fool to make that stupid "suggestion".

More likely he is militarily ignorant.
19 posted on 01/23/2005 5:28:30 AM PST by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
The truth is that both Churchill and Rosevelt knew that the Nazis were rounding up people of Jewish heritage fro slaughter. When did they first learn about it? Probably in late 1941 or in early 1942. The Wannsee Conference, where Germany formally adopted genocide as the "final solution," took place in January, 1942. One of the key reasons for the conference was that England rejected Hitler's proposal to transport by sea up to million Jews held in German occupied territory.

Many Jews joined that French resistance and fought against Nazi troops after 1941. Click Here. The U.K. was in constant radio contact with French resistance fighters. It's very hard to believe that the allies did not know about what was going on.

20 posted on 01/23/2005 5:28:56 AM PST by ex-Texan (Mathew 7:1 Through 6)
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