Sunday, January 23, 2005
An Auschwitz Question
As we approach the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a question I have often wondered about has also been appearing in the media. By 1944, the Allies knew of the existence of the extermination camps at Auschwitz, as these aerial photographs taken by the allied air forces show. So, why on earth did they not bomb the camps and put an end to the murder? Even assuming they lacked precision weapons, any damage caused by an Allied bombing would be significaantly less than the murders at the camps between May 1944 (when the first aerial shots were taken). The BBC picks up on this question.
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. 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.
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."
For those of you who are interested, PBS is airing Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State every Wednesday between Jan 19th and Feb 2nd. I watched the first episode and I thought it was very well done.
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. 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.
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."
For those of you who are interested, PBS is airing Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State every Wednesday between Jan 19th and Feb 2nd. I watched the first episode and I thought it was very well done.
