If it was known what happened at the camps IŽd think at least bombing the railways leading to the camps would be considered "essential". How many lives could be saved thus! Does anyone know if this happened anywhere? Was the information on mass destruction considered rubbish ? I think both Air forces should have taken part in this( although I know hindsight is always so easy...)
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"From April 1944 on, the American Air Force could have destroyed the camp with air raids, as well as the railway bridges and railway lines from Hungary to Auschwitz. The murder of about 400,000 Hungarian Holocaust victims could have been prevented."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/...312540,00.html
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After the Allies gained control of the Foggia Air Base in Italy in December 1943, Auschwitz was within striking distance of Allied planes for the first time.
In June 1944, two Auschwitz escapees provided U.S. diplomats and Jewish leaders in Switzerland a detailed report about Auschwitz. It included descriptions of the mass-murder facilities and diagrams locating the gas chambers and crematoria.
Following this report, Jewish organizations repeatedly asked the Roosevelt administration to order the bombing of Auschwitz and the railroad lines leading to the camp.
The War Department rejected the bombing requests. They stated such raids would be "impracticable" and require "considerable diversion" of planes needed for the war effort.
http://judaism.about.com/od/holocaust/a/aush_nobomb.htm
John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War, explains to John W. Pehle, Director, War Refugee Board, that the War Department cannot authorize the bombing of Auschwitz, November 18, 1944.
Dear Mr. Pehle:
I refer to your letter of November 8th, in which you forwarded the report of two eye-witnesses on the notorious German concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau in Upper Silesia.
The Operation Staff of the War Department has given careful consideration to your suggestion that the bombing of these camps be undertaken. In consideration of this proposal the following points were brought out:
a. Positive destruction of these camps would necessitate precision bombing, employing heavy or medium bombardment, or attack by low flying or dive bombing aircraft, preferably the latter.
b. The target is beyond the maximum range of medium bombardment, dive bombers and fighter bombers located in United Kingdom, France or Italy.
c. Use of heavy bombardment from United Kingdom bases would necessitate a hazardous round trip flight unescorted of approximately 2,000 miles over enemy territory.
d. At the present critical stage of the war in Europe, our strategic air forces are engaged in the destruction of industrial target systems vital to the dwindling war potential of the enemy, from which they should not be diverted. The positive solution to this problem is the earliest possible victory over Germany, to which end we should exert our entire means.
e. This case does not at all parallel the Amiens mission because of the location of the concentration and extermination camps and the resulting difficulties encountered in attempting to carry out the proposed bombing.
Based on the above, as well as the most uncertain, if not dangerous effect such a bombing would have on the object to be attained, the War Department has felt that it should not, at least for the present, undertake these operations.
I know that you have been reluctant to press this activity on the War Department. We have been pressed strongly from other quarters, however, and have taken the best military opinion on its feasibility, and we believe the above conclusion is a sound one.
Sincerely,
John McCloy
Assistant Secretary of War
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocau.../bombjohn.html
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Time...z-bombing.html
