The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies Have Attempted It? - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0700612807 ISBN 13: 9780700612802

Publisher: University Press of Kansas, 2003

Synopsis

Did we "know" the gas chambers were there? Could we have destroyed them? Why didn't we bomb?

For decades, debate has raged over whether the Allies should have bombed the gas chambers at Auschwitz and the railroads leading to the camp, thereby saving thousands of lives and disrupting Nazi efforts to exterminated European Jews. Was it truly feasible to do so? did failure to do so simply reflect a callous indifference to the plight of the Jews or was it a realistic assessment of a plan that could not succeed? In this volume, a number of eminent historians address and debate those very questions.

Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this is the first paperback edition of a book that has been widely hailed by critics and cited by Kirkus Reviews as "the definitive resource for understanding this deeply troubling episode in the twentieth century's greatest horror." Prominent scholars such as Sir Martin Gilbert, Walter Laqueur, Michael Berenbaum, Gerhard Weinberg, and Williamson Murrag offer a diverse array of mutually supporting and competing perspectives on the subject. In the process, they shed important light on how much knowledge of Auschwitz Allied intelligence actually had and on what measures the Allies might have taken to halt the killing.

The book is also rich in documentary evidence—including the correspondence of Churchill, Roosevelt, Cordell Hull, Anthony Eden, and John McCloy—that reveals just how much these men knew about the situation and what they thought about its potential resolution. It also includes a selection of the most important documents and aerial reconnaissance photos from 1944 exploring the feasibility of an air strike.

Ultimately, these contributions show that the dilemma over Auschwitz was far more complex than criticisms of inaction would suggest. The Bombing of Auschwitz is an unusual volume that confronts life-and-death questions and addresses a matter of enduring interest for all readers of World War II and Holocaust history.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael J. Neufeld, author of The Rocket and the Reich, is a curator and historian at the National Air and Space Museum. Michael Berenbaum, author of The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust, is director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust and adjunct professor of theology at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He served as director of the Research Institute of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Essays by military and Holocaust historians (whose answers to the question in the subtitle vary widely), supplemented with relevant primary documents.Editors Neufeld (The Rocket and the Reich, 1994) and Berenbaum (CEO/Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation) have assembled a myriad of replies to one of the most basic questions that students of the Holocaust ask and are faithful to their goal of presenting all sides of the debate. Some, like Neufeld himself, argue that bombing would have been a failure under any circumstances (or, in the words of contributor James H. Kitchens, a chimera). Contrariwise, Richard G. Davis (among others) submits that attacking the death camp would have sent the strongest possible message to the Nazis and would not have seriously delayed the accomplishment of other goals. In between these two positions lies the essence of the debate, and an impressive assortment of authorities' attempts to answer its various questions. Did the Allies know what was going on in Auschwitz-Birkenau? (Yes, but the Nazis had already killed five million Jews by the time the Allies invaded Normandy.) Did Allied bombers have the range to reach the camp deep in Poland? (Yes, but not until early in 1944 when the US established an air base in southern Italy.) Would a raid have been effective? (Virtually everyone acknowledges that bombing in 1944 was highly inaccurate, that multiple attacks would have been necessary, and that innocent inmates--perhaps hundreds or thousands--would have been killed.) Other writers examine the moral issues. Walter Laqueur observes that saving Jewish lives was not a high priority; Henry L. Feingold attributes the inaction to mere indifference or moral obtuseness; and Deborah E. Lipstadt condemns the bystanders, noting that a person who takes no action becomes a facilitator. Wisely, the editors include much of the documentary evidence.The definitive resource for understanding this deeply troubling episode in the 20th century's greatest horror. (8 pages b&w photos, 4 maps) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0700612807
• ISBN 13: 9780700612802
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368
• Editor: Neufeld Michael J., Berenbaum Michael