When looked at strategically, from a military standpoint there really wasn't much that could be done. As has already been point out, the worst camps were located in territories that were beyond the reach of the allied armies until late in the war. Bombing the camps certainly wouldn't have done much good as the Nazi's would have repaired the tracks or started shooting those who couldn't be transported. All this can be argued but truly, there wasn't much that could be done militarily except win the war as quickly as possible.
Politically, I agree that the camps could have been publicized earlier when confirmation was received and there was no doubt about the horrors that were being perpetrated on the inmates. This could have saved lives and made it clear to the Nazi leaders that what they were doing was no longer secret, and they would be held accountable for their actions. To be sure, these leaders knew that they would have to answer for their crimes if they lost, but shedding light on their actions to the world could have still made a difference. Having said that, it should be remembered that the allies readily recalled the rumors and propaganda made about the Germans in the first world war that proved to be largely false. Moreover, the crimes did take some time to be made known and they were so fantastic as to be beyond belief thereby taking some time to be taken seriously by many of the allied leadership. However, as I said, once known they could have been made public so that the people in the allied nations could express outrage and perhaps give the Germans pause. Would this have really changed the outcome or saved lives? Who knows, but we certainly could have exposed these horrific crimes earlier and found out. Quinn From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Anthony Calabrese Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 3:24 AM To: List Churchill Subject: RE: [ChurchillChat] Re: Accomplices : Churchill, Roosevelt and the Holocaust What it all came down to was that the easiest way to help the camp inmates and to save at least some of the Jews was to win the war as soon as possible. Bombing railway lines that otherwise served no military purpose would have lengthened the war. The only thing that might have been done was in 1941 or so, allowing the continental Jews to be resettled in the French colonial empire (as was suggested by the so called Madagascar Plan) but considering the ongoing war, the fact that such would have required the diversion of much shipping to the effort, it was a non-starter. And I doubt the Germans took the plan that seriously anyway. Anthony . _____ Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:49:53 -0700 From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [ChurchillChat] Re: Accomplices : Churchill, Roosevelt and the Holocaust To: [email protected] The horrors of the Holocaust were certainly real, but one has to ask the question, what COULD have been done? And, realistically, the answer has to be - not much. The Holocaust occurred in the geographic middle of the Nazi empire, well away from any possible military action. Those suggesting bombing of the camps are unaware of the high level of inaccuracy of Allied bombing (Robin Olds said he flew some photo recce missions of bomb damage and that he felt the safest place to fly during the strike was right over the target). We would have probably killed an awful lot of camp inmates without any positive results had we done any bombing. While the Allies were aware of what was going on, the high command realistically knew they could do nothing as a practical matter, and what would be the result of publicizing the situation? Probably intense political pressure to "DO something" even if it would have negative results. War has a lot of very unpleasant decisions; I've known Holocaust survivors and they certainly went through unbelievable HELL, but what could have been REALISTICALLY done? I hate to say it, but the decisions taken were - given what was known at the time - probably the right ones. Jonathan Hayes --- On Sun, 8/14/11, Lincoln <[email protected]> wrote: From: Lincoln <[email protected]> Subject: [ChurchillChat] Re: Accomplices : Churchill, Roosevelt and the Holocaust To: "ChurchillChat" <[email protected]> Date: Sunday, August 14, 2011, 1:02 PM Yet another disaffected Jewish person obsessed with the 'wrongs' that so-called Christian countries have perpetrated against his people. Having no one left to blame, he decides to round on the men who actually did most to free these people from the monstrous persecution that had come upon them. How disgusting ingratitude is! On Aug 13, 5:35 am, David Freeman <[email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> > wrote: > The $85 dollar price should be sufficient to deter most readers from re-visiting such ancient and long-exposed myths. > > --- On Sat, 8/13/11, Antoine Capet <[email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> > wrote: > > From: Antoine Capet <[email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> > > Subject: [ChurchillChat] Accomplices : Churchill, Roosevelt and the Holocaust > To: [email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> > Date: Saturday, August 13, 2011, 12:02 AM > > Dear all, > > The latest book in the field (below) has just appeared (July 2011). > > Best wishes, > > Professor Antoine Capet, FRHistS > Head of British Studies > University of Rouen > Mont-Saint-Aignan 76821 (France) > > 'Britain since 1914' Editor, > Royal Historical Society Bibliography > [email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> > > Reviews Editor of Cercleshttp://www.cercles.com/review/reviews.html > ================================= > > Groth, Alexander J. > Accomplices : Churchill, Roosevelt and the Holocaust > > New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien: Berg, 2011. XII, 293 pp. > Studies in Modern European History. Vol. 67 > General Editor: Frank J. Coppa > ISBN 978-1-4331-1463-2 hb. > US$ 85.95 > > This volume asserts that there was tacit cooperation in the Nazi extermination of the Jewish population of Europe by British Prime Minister > Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Second World War. Although the Allies publicly recognized the > Nazi massacre of the Jews in the London Declaration of December 17, 1942, the policies they pursued allowed the genocide to continue. They > did so, the author claims, in three ways: (1) refusal to publicly and personally speak about and against the Nazi extermination of the Jews; (2) > refusal to commit even one soldier, one plane, or one warship to any forcible opposition to the <Final Solution> throughout the Second World > War; and (3) obstruction of Jewish escape from Hitler's Europe. This book explores the motivation for the policies Churchill and Roosevelt > pursued. > > Alexander J. Groth is a Holocaust survivor, most of whose family perished during the Nazi <Final Solution.> He received his PhD from Columbia > University and his BA magna cum laude from the City College of New York. He is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University > of California, Davis, where he has taught since 1962, specializing in comparative politics. Groth is the author and editor of numerous books > including Comparative Politics (1971); People's Poland (1972); Public Policy Across Nations (1985); Lincoln (1996); Democracies Against Hitler > (1999); and, most recently, Holocaust Voices (2003). > > http://www.peterlang.com/download/datasheet/60414/datasheet_311463.pdf > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> . > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> . > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> . To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] <http://mc/[email protected]> . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. 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