-Caveat Lector-
Of course Washington knew in 1942...It was no "secret" at the time.
American, Canadian and British
newspapers in the early 1940s published details of the Nazi extermination
process. Prime Minister
Churchill often made speeches against the crimes (back then, the term
"Holocaust" was not used.)
Around 1943, the United States was a co-signer of a joint Allied
proclamation denouncing Nazi extermination
of European Jews. Yet, still, every few years US newspapers still keep
coming out with breathless "news" about this fact that was widely known and
publicized during the Second World War.
And what exactly would have been Rooservelt's options? Bear in mind that
prior to 1941 America was following an isolationist policy and we had a
(comparatively) small military. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor and subsequently through the first half of 1942 we were not winning
the war but barely staying afloat as the Japanese marched their way through
the South Pacific and we prepared to our military for the two front war,
while Europe, for the most part, was conquered by Hitler and Fascism.
Most of the concentration camps were in Germany and Poland. The accepted
policy (without the benefit of sixty years of hindsight mixed in with some
conspirational paranoia) was that the priority was the defeat of Nazism,
which in turn would also lead to the saving of the Jews. And the best way to
defeat Nazism was to remove their forces from Northern Africa opening the
Mediterranean and allowing for an invasion of Southern Europe. At the same
time the planning and build up of forces was begun for a cross channel
invasion, which would develop a second European front.
Any suggestion that bombing concentration camps would have saved Jews is
absurd. Air bombardments at the time were a matter of quantity over quality.
Since the bombers had to fly at 10,000-30,000 feet to avoid anti-aircraft
fire and enemy air patrols their accuracy was very limited. To ensure that
the target would be hit they used an overabundance of ordnance. Kind of like
killing a fly with a shotgun. Even then, it was not a full proof method.
Bombing concentration camps would have only killed the Jewish inmates of the
camps (the guards would have had adequate bomb shelters) and at the best
results would have had the survivors still interred, in the worst, executed
in retaliation.
Sending in any kind of land force was impossible due to the camps
geographical location and the state and position of allied armies. An
airborne/glider rescue would also have been impossible. The force would have
had to been quite large to ensure its own security, half of the low and slow
flying transport planes would never had made it through Nazi air defenses.
If the force landed any where near their objective and intact they would
then have had to conduct a fighting rescue (with at best three or four days
supply of food and ammo), then move more than a 1000 miles overland,
surrounded by hostile and better equipped forces with thousands of emaciated
and weak internees.
That is not to say that America did not have an anti-Semitic attitude (as
did most of the world) back in the forties. Your anger and sense of
injustice should be directed to Cordell Hull, head of the US State
Department at the time. State was highly anti-Semitic and did block or slow
down several programs (FDR approved by the way) that would have sped up the
process for allowing European Jews to immigrate to America, provide finance
for partisans and to collect information.
Personally I think FDR was one of our greatest Presidents and without his
leadership back then we would probably have four trading partners today,
Middleeuropa (what Hitler was to call Europe after he unified it under the
Nazi banner) the South East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (what the Japanese
were trying to create), Communist China and a Stalinist Soviet Union. But I
rather like this world much more, a place where you and others like you can
sift through America's past and loosely link some historical inaccuracies to
find a conspiracy where there is none and not suffer any consequences.
Steve
> ----------
> From: flw
> Reply To: Conspiracy Theory Research List
> Sent: Tuesday, July 3, 2001 9:47 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [CTRL] FDR- Pearl Harbor and the Holocaust
>
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> The evidence indicates FDR knew about Pearl Harbor and
> did nothing; now it is clear he knew about the impending Holocaust
> and did nothing. Now we know what FDR really stands for:
> "F**king Dirty Rat."
> flw
>
> THE TIMES
> WEDNESDAY JULY 04 2001
>
> Allies 'were told of Holocaust in 1941'
>
> BY BEN MACINTYRE
>
> BRITISH and American intelligence services knew of Nazi genocide plans
> months earlier than previously thought,
> according to a newly declassified document in the United States, but did
> not warn Jews of the impending
> Holocaust.
> A report written in November 1941, obtained by British agents and passed
> to the US in March 1942, stated
> unequivocally that it had been decided to eradicate the Jews.
>
> Most historians had concluded that the West did not become aware of the
> Holocaust until August 1942. The
> information came from Gonzalo Montt Rivas, the Chilean consul in Prague,
> in a report to his superiors in
> Santiago.
>
> The consul described a German decree that Jews living abroad could no
> longer be German subjects and that their
> property would be confiscated by the Nazis. Then, interpreting the decree,
> he wrote: "The German triumph (in
> the war) will leave Europe freed of Semites. It has been decided to
> eradicate all the Jews and send some to
> Poland and others to the town of Terezin, while looking for a more remote
> place."
>
> The consul may have been working for German intelligence, despite his
> country's neutrality, according to
> Richard Breitman, chief historian for the government agency overseeing
> declassification of wartime records at
> the National Archives and Records Administration.
>
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DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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