> Some Jewish leaders begged the Allies to bomb the rail lines leading to Auschwitz. <
There was a whiff of antisemitism in FDR’s government. But all fairness, I must mention two points.
1. Precision bombing was in its infancy in WW II. How many of those bombs would have hit their target? Maybe 10% on a good day.
2. The Germans were VERY good at repairing damaged railroad lines. Repairing damaged oil refineries and ball-bearing factories, well that wasn’t so easy.
So where do you send the limited amount of bombers you have? Hitting which targets would end the war quickest, and save the most lives? I dunno. It’s not the easiest of calls.
Don't kid yourself, there was a whiff of antisemitism in EVERY government at that time.
You might note my post 7. The bombing idea was first raised by the Polish government who knew of the conditions first. And some Jewish leaders in the US once the knew. There are some comments from Karski that most outside of his government didn’t want to hear about what was going on. Including some prominent Jews in the US and the administration. I don’t have a strong opinion either way. Winning the war was the objective. As a secondary target, maybe. Arming the soviets probably saved more Jewish lives.
Exactly. That was my first thought as well. Damaged rail lines are easy to repair, and the Germans were focused on killing Jews to the point that they even diverted rail cars that could have been used to supply their military so that they could transport Jews to their deaths.