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Auschwitz and the Allies

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This book is in many ways two books -the first being how the British and Americans were duped into not realizing the true nature of "the deportations to the East." The second was their lack of real interest in saving what could have been saved of the Jews. When one reads the memorandums by such people as John J. McCloy and various faceless British Foreign Office officals you get the feeling that their greatest fear was what were they going to do "with all these Jews" who could be rescued. The old canard oft stated by Roosevelt apologists such as William D. Rubinstein who wrote "The Myth of Rescue" that the best way to help the Jews was to win the war as quickly as possible is proven false - Jews could be rescued if there was a will to rescue. them. The most heartrending section of all - dealing with the destruction of the Jews of Hungary is when you read all the excuses given for not bombing the gaschambers at Auschwitz is when you see the actual aerial photographs of Birkenau and people being led to the gas chambers. The allies always claimed that it was logistically impossible to bomb Auschwitz-Birkenau and we now kmow that was a damnable lie. Also the real heroes we learn are of all people - Treasury Department Officials and two escaped Auschwitz prisoners who brought to the world the horrors of Auschwitz and fought the crypt Anti-Semites who were not doing all they could for rescue.

This is an excellent study by Sir Martin Gilbert surrounding the most horrific period in Jewish history, the Holocaust, and the 'role' of the Allies.

We are confronted with the disturbing revelation that, although supplied with considerable information about the decimation of Jewish communities in the Nazi Concentration Camps & gas ovens of Europe, the Allies turned a blind and incredulous eye to the suffering and slaughter.

In relation to the British involvement (or lack of it), the book quotes from a letter by Winston Churchill to Anthony Eden dated July 1944 pertaining to the Nazi slaughter of Jews in Europe;-"...there is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible single crime ever committed in the whole history of the world..."

One would think that this expression of apparent concern would have led to the most aggressive intervention possible to rescue the vast numbers facing genocide. Not so ! The book shows that Churchill did indeed order a so-called feasibility study for possible air-strikes on Auschwitz, but subsequently did nothing. The issue was passed to the Americans who also did...nothing.

Before some say that it was too late in 1944 anyway, the book clearly illustrates the Allied possession of such knowledge of an ongoing genocide in 1942.

Hitler himself being shown to have publically announced during 1942, before an enormous crowd & film crews, that the war in Europe would result in the complete annihilation of the Jews. Some 11,000,000 in Europe. The Allied Government's all heard this, but looked away.

The book details a number of British newspaper headlines and extensive reports, some of which follow;-
"Nazis murder 700,000 Jews in Poland". - Daily Telegraph, 25 June 1942, which also included a follow up report under the heading "Travelling Gas Chambers".
Additionally, the following reports were published publically on 30 June 1942;
"Massacre of Jews - Over 1,000,000 have died since the war began". - The Times.
"Greatest pogrom - one million Jews die". - Daily Mail.

Other such references are also included, all of which show an alarming knowledge of the Nazis agenda and operations for the last 3-4 years of the war.

The contents of this study clearly show that the Allies had both the equipment and technology to bomb/destroy the railway lines and bridges leading to Nazi Concentration Camps and even the gas chambers themselves at Auschwitz. Allied aircrews and far-reaching amounts of aircraft were even risked to drop supplies to assist the Polish resistance during the Warsaw Uprising against the Germans.

Missions that even entailed overflying Auschwitz itself whilst en-route to Warsaw, yet not a single bomb or supply was dropped to assist the Jews. Having served in the British armed forces, I feel an incredible level of shame whilst writing this.

The book proceeds to examine whether it was not perhaps `politically expedient' for the Allies to intervene on behalf of the Jews. The British situation in Palestine is studied, in particular the restrictions placed upon Jewish immigration into Palestine and British interests in the Middle East in parallel with the latter's relationship with the Arab world.

Reference is made amongst others to the incident surrounding what the British called the `illegal' refugee ship `Struma', carrying some 750 men, women and children, forbidden entry into Palestine and sent back to the Black Sea. Despite there being little food or sanitary provisions for these poor people and their vessel being declared as unseaworthy, no help was forthcoming. Indeed, the book shows that neither humanitarian or military considerations would change British policy towards the Jews. The `Struma' mysteriously blowing-up in the Black Sea with all but one of the 750 refugees being allowed to perish.

This is an essential contribution towards Holocaust studies. Might I respectfully recommend another book upon this same subject entitled "The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945" by David Wyman.

This thoroughly documented and deeply disturbing book is divided into three parts. The Final Solution includes the chapters Hitler's Pledge, Warnings And Forebodings, Britain's Dilemma, Evidence And Omissions, Rescue and Refuge, Eyewitness and This Bestial Policy. Part Two: Hope And Hopelessness includes Warsaw And Bermuda, The Spread Of Nazi Power and The German Occupation Of Hungary. Part Three: Auschwitz revealed, includes inter alia, Escape From Auschwitz, Zionism At Bay, The Deportations From Hungary, The End Of Auschwitz and the Epilogue.

The book is painful to read as it chronicles the history of the Shoah from the earliest warnings of Hitler's intentions through the war, the doomed attempts of many individuals and organisations to rescue the Jews, the indifference and the excuses given by certain officials on the Allied side, and the actions, good and bad, of occupied and neutral countries. Although the book does not focus on personal experiences in the holocaust, there are some examples of unspeakable horror that the sensitive reader had best avoid.

The author ascribes the extent of the tragedy and the failure to do more as failures of imagination, of response, of intelligence, co-ordination and of sympathy. To me the most shocking revelations are those where policymakers used the excuse that they were afraid of flooding Palestine and the UK with Jewish refugees. Or maybe even worse, those who claimed that the reports coming out of Europe were exaggerated. Another incredible show of indifference was the refusal of the Allies to bomb Auschwitz, while their planes were overflying the accursed place to drop supplies on Warsaw for the Polish uprising.

Here and there one finds some glimpses of right action, for example Bulgaria, an Axis ally that nevertheless managed to protect its Jews from the worst. But overall, one is left with a feeling of utter despair at the way the events unfolded and the frustration that Zionist leaders must have endured in trying to help their doomed people. It is chilling to read how countries like Switzerland refused to accommodate refugees and how every obstacle was placed in the way of orphaned children trying to reach Israel. The world looked on and it still does. Since then, we have witnessed Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Darfur.

The book contains 16 pages of black and white plates and 20 maps. It concludes with biographical notes and a thorough index. For more information and background on the horror and the indifference, I recommend A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson and The Contract of Mutual Indifference: Political Philosophy After the Holocaust by Norman Geras. For a glimpse of the future, consult Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left by David Horowitz and The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel, and Liberal Opinion by Bernard Harrison.

Scepticism is a powerful force. Do not be sceptical of this book: read it. We think we know the story of the holocaust: it is a harrowing one, evil leaders duping or swaying a more or less complicit German population into killing Jews, Poles, homosexuals, the disabled in darkest Eastern Europe; the end of the war revealing an unimaginable horror. Unbelievable. Well, yes, actually. This book tells the story of those who died trying to tell the world of these 'unbelievable' events; smuggling themselves, their stories, their papers, their photographs, their evidence to neutral Switzerland and thence to the Allies. They were met with unbelief. This is believable, even understandable. The trickle of information became a torrent. Still unbelief. Finally, and this is the most unbelievable part, incontrovertable truth, testimonies, high altitude photographs are met with... no massive response. No change in war strategy. No attempt to save the thousands the Allies knew were dying every day. Only slow-thighed, stone-walling bureaucracy: timid circular memos, double-thinking, a need to know basis, no rocking of boats, a belief in desks, annotations, hierarchy, in process not in human life. Yes, they knew. No, they did nothing. Yes they kept this a secret. This is no conspiracy theory. The evidence is unbelievable. But it is incontrovertable. Undeniable, undenied, even. Churchill, Roosevelt, Washington, Whitehall, all the echelons of government, our noble western democracies, did nothing, nothing, to stop the largest act of deliberate, systematic murder the world has seen.

Read this back. That makes them complicit. That makes us complicit.

The final unbelievability: that this painstaking, unassuming, remorseless, tragic book is not more widely known. That its conclusions are not taught in schools. That it could fall out of print. (Out of print!). Clearly there are some things we would rather not know. About ourselves. I first read this when fourteen; the memory remained with me; I am reading it again now, and it has no less effect. It is unbelievable. Still.

If you consider yourself a member of western civilization, notwithstanding Ghandi's sceptical view of this paradox, you must read this book. Just for a moment put to one side scepticism, healthy or otherwise, and believe it. Believe the story of what happened and what failed to happen, or you are as culpable as those that did not, would not believe during the war. You are as culpable as those that knew, that believed, and did precisely nothing. Now, we can do little; the least is to find out, to read this book. Then you can decide what to believe.

I read this book when I was an undergraduate, and now I have read it again, along with books on eyewitness accounts by Alfred Wexler and Rudolph Vrba. Martin Gilbert's book makes an ineffable case regarding the intentional lassitude of Great Britain's leaders, excluding Churchill for whom he has written a biography of, in ignoring the facts when it came to saving the Jews of Europe. The Americans were no less dismissive of Jewish requests. The seminal question is if it was allied war prisoners or British subjects that were the target of Hitler's killing machine would the allies have bomber Auschwitz?

In this comprehensive work , Martin Gilbert analyses how the Allied governments during World War II reacted to news about the Nazi holocaust of Europe's Jewry , especially after the truth became known about the massive death factory known as Auschwitz.

He poses the questions as to why the Allies never bombed Auschwitz , and analyses Allied lack of reaction , despite ample news of the holocaust - revealing how the allies could have - but did not- act to save millions of Jews.

The prelude to the book deals with Hitler's pledge to completely anihilate the Jews of Europe , on January 20 1942.

By 1941 , the reality of the Nazi massacre of Jews had certainly reached allied governments. On 3 May 1941 the Polish Government-in-Exile sent a formal note to the governments of allied and neutral powers describing how 'tens of thousands' had been interned in concentration camps and it went on to mention four such camps: Oswiecim (Auschwitz) , Oranieburg , , Mauthausen and Dachau as camps whose names will 'mark the most horrible pages of the annals of German bestiality.' The Polish note contained more than 200 accounts of the tortures and murders commited in the camps.

But the persecution of Jews was still not thought of as a specifically important issue. On 25 July 1941 , a Ministry of Information document "had warned British policy makers that to make the Nazi danger 'credible' to the British people it should 'not be too extreme as concentration camp stories 'repel the normal mind'"...while a certain amount of horror was needed "it must deal always with the treatment of indisputably innocent people , Not with violent political opponents and not with Jews".

In 1939 the British issued their infamous White Paper severely restricting the entry of Jews into Palestine , barring their only root of escape from Nazi terror , largely in order to appease Arab opinion .
About 500 000 Jews actually attempted to enter "Palestine" after the Shoah had begun in 1942, but were brutally turned back by the British even after news of the death camps and gas chambers had filtered back to the British. Sir Harold McMichael , British High Commisioner in Palestine telegraphed to the colonial office: " The fate of these people was tragic , but the fact remains that they where national of a country at war with Britain , proceeeding directly from enemy territory. Palestine was under no obligation towards them."
In 1942 Anthony Eden , British Foreign Secretary , refused once again to relax the restriction of Jewish immigration into Palestine claiming that turning back the ships would 'in the end be more merciful.'

British MP Eleanor Rathbone hit the nail on the head when she said: "If it had not been for the restrictions placed on immigration to Palestine in pre-war years , even before the Palestinian White Paper , imposed partly for economic reasons , and partly to please the Arabs , tens of thousands of men , women and children who now lie in bloody graves would have been among their kindred in Palestine..."
Others like Lord Cherwell also urged a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a refuge for Europe's persecuted Jews pointing out that "After the last war Arabia (as big as Western Europe) was conquered by us from the Turks and handed over to the Arabs ; it seems strange that one corner of it , the size of Wales is grudged to the Jews"
This information makes it particularly sickening to see much of the British establishment, including the British media (epitomized by the hate speech of the likes of Robert Fisk, and the BBC), politicians , academics like Tom Paulin and others, leading the international campaign to vilify and harm Israel.
They are showing the same callousness in regard to Jewish men, women and children being murdered today, as they did during the British Mandate.

Aside from the British refusal to let Jews escape to Palestine , the allies rejected taking in Jews into their own countries , claiming that they did not want to be inundated with a 'flood of refugees'.
The book documents the unceasing efforts by Zionist leaders , such as Richard Lichtheim and Chaim Weizmann , to alert the allied governments of the enormity of what was going on and to try to urge them to act to save the Jews , but they constantly fell on deaf ears.

Throughout the war the allied governments where inundated with reports of the atrocities taking place against Jews , throughout Europe but reacted with characteristic calousness such as the remark of a leading British Foreign Office official in September 1944 : "In my opinion a disproportionate amount of time of the Office is wasted on dealing with these wailing Jews..."

Eventually the report of two young Jews who had escaped Auschwitz landed on Churchill's desk and the possibility of bombing the railway lines leading to Auschwitz , and the gas chambers themselves was indeed examined . But why was the plan never carried out?

In the wake of this callous inaction , a section of the world's Jews realized that never again could their safety and survival be left up to the nations of the world alone , and that is the meaning of the State of Israel.
The survival of Israel means the prevention of any such holocaust ever happening again to the Jews.
Will the world stand by as Israel's existence is threatened by Islamic terrorists and Moslem and far-left bigots across the globe?

Looking into history is one of the areas that we can almost always fell we have found an absolute truth. Even if some of the facts remain hidden or just plain unknown, major events have so many other markers and road maps that historians can find the truth, even if it is narrow in scope. The truth presented in this book is that the Allies knew that Hitler's Germany was engaged in mass killings of different ethnic groups with Jews being number one on the hit list. The author spends a good deal of time detailing out his research that shows that this fact was even in the public press. What is not detailed to any great degree was what decisions lead the leaders of the Allies to prosecute the war in the manner they did. Why were these atrocities ignored or not acted on?

The author did not fully investigate this question, and to be fair it would probably be difficult given the decisions made here were by a very few people and not verbalized. The book is interesting and details a good number of facts on the topic. I did seem to pick up on a seemingly anti non Jewish bias in the book. The author examines the Allies ignoring of the mass killings, but does not try to explain what could have actually been done to stop them. Looking at the full picture of the war, there was not an easy fix for this problem if one at all. Even if air power resources would have been diverted to camps, there were many that the overall war effort would have been negatively effected. How much longer would have the overall war gone on and how many more people would have died? Even if the Allies had stopped the camps, there were still killing squads that were activity in the country side that killed almost two million people. Nothing short of a full victory would have stopped this activity.

Overall I found the book interesting but limited. If you are just coming to this discussion, this book gives the reader a nice overview of the "Allies Knew" field of study, but what it does not do is present the story with all the facts about the Allies position in the war. It also seems a bit self severing that the author seems to only care about this one section of the European population that was dieing when countless millions more died at the hands of Hitler and Stalin. This was a horrific period in our collective history and I hope that the end effect of this and other books like it, help to keep in focus our responsibility on stopping these atrocities in the future regardless of if they are Europeans, Africans or Asians that are being killed.

There is NO question that the hatred of the Jews existed everywhere in the large part of Europe (especially Poland and France) and in the United States. However, OF THE ALLIES, it seems that you've skipped two of the most DIRECT examples. First, of course, was FDR turning away the ship of refugees whose last hope was the USA. They all were sent back to Europe and were murdered. Much worse was the inaction of Eisenhower (under a cloak from FDR), that caused him to refuse the simple act of bombing RR bridges on the route to the camps. ... No study is complete without Roul Hilberg's "The Distruction of the European Jews" ... Perhaps Gilbert's book is better then his first, but there are SO many MUCH better books out.

Martin Gilbert, who writes "Auschwitz and the Allies" illustrates a very colorful picture of what the mindset of the German leader Adolf Hitler and his military leaders in the period of World War One, all the way to the end of World War Two. Gilbert uses references to many primary sources, (mostly newspaper articles) to show his point. He uses these excerpts to show that his points can be backed with historical data. Gilbert also shows how the Allies played an important role in this process at Auschwitz.The rest of the book seems to show the lack of support from the Allies to the Jews. The book takes a look as to why the allies gave the cold shoulder to a horrific time in our past. Gilbert seems to think that the mass murder of the Jewish people took place before the Allies had enough information to steam ahead on a stop to this. He does, however, carry a very sarcastic tone in this book. He claims that many of the allied leaders looked at these stories of the horrific killing of the Jews as "customary Jewish exaggeration." Gilbert claims that the extermination of the Jews was well known in Europe. He says that the knowledge of where the people where headed was the information that kept people from stopping anything. Gilbert counters the "customary Jewish exaggeration" with "typical Nazi deception". The Nazi's deceived more people than the Jews exaggerated to. Gilbert ends his book with a summary. He says that there were two major victories in the war, and many failures. He throws the blame of ignorance on the allies, and gives the victories to the Nazi's, for their ability to nearly annihilate the Jews, and for deceiving the rest of the world. (please excuse the jumping around, this is a summary of a five page paper)

Several reviewers have stated that the allies had "knowledge" of the exterminations
as early as 1942. That is quite a stretch and is not plausible. There were rumors, rumors
that even the Hungarian Jewish council did not believe. And when Vrba first told them of what he'd
seen at Auschwitz before he escaped, even they didn't believe his story until his remarkable memory of Hungarian Auschwitz Jews he'd seen at Auschwitz finaly convinced them that he wasn't lying.
If the Allied high command "knew" of the xtermination camps, Eisenhower sure wasn't
included in that group. He, as well as Patton and Bradley were astonished and aghast when they
found out firsthand. Russian reports had earlier claimed that they had proof after liberating some
camps, but then, the Russians were prone to making outrageous claims of German atrocities througout the war,and no one really took them seriously. However, considering what Hitler had said all along, coupled with what knowledge they did have up to that point of SS behavior, it shouldn't have taken Sherlock Holmes
to figure out that there might very well be something to it. Certainly the Allies could have bombed Auschwitz and should have, after recon flights, which, by the smell of the ovens, would have provided
sufficient proof that bombing was in order. And it's not as though the Allies ever had an reticience
about bombing civilians - several large German cities had practically been bombed into oblivion to
no particular military advantage. FDR certainly had no desire to help any Jews - that would not have helped him politically, and his whole life was about winning in the political arena. Only if a large segment of the American public had demanded action would he have ever done anything. Nor is this failure
in saving lives the only one made during the war by the allies. The sloppy, almost negligent planning by Bradley, Monty and Ike for D-Day stands out, as well as the unbelievable decision to continue
producing crappy Sherman deathraps when the Pershing tank was ready for production and could have been available thruout the campaign in Northern Europe. Nor the bombing that cost so heavily that was
continued after it became apparent that fighter escort was an absolute necessity. Most of the bombing
carried out over Europe had little effect on the German war machine. What was needed was someone in the Allied high command/federal govt to stand up and demand action, but govts seldom contain folks in
high positions who have courage and the required ability to do so, and msot of the military high command was focused on the war and not in the loop. Churchill had also ordered a halt
to Allied bombing of German civilians, but backed down when "Bomber" Harris threatened to resign.
He did partially redeem himself when he warned of the Iron Curtain after the war. The claim that
bombing missions of death camps would have diverted efforts to end the war is totally preposterous.
Such efforts wouldn't have amounted to drop in the ocean, and the targets would have been easy ones, with no anti-aircraft capabilites to speak of nor any other means of defense against attacks from the air.
The Allies certainly didn't cover themselves with glory on the Jewish death camp issue, but they
seldom did so with other important issues either. Mediocrity seems to describe the Allied effort in WWII, for the most part, although there were exceptions.