During WW II the allies and mainly the US decided to avoid bombing known death camps. While it can be argued that the Americans did not understand the vast and harsh scale of these centers, they had enough idea, to understand their importance. We needed to end their existence and we chose not to. For example, many American strategists and tacticians called for the bombing of the most prominent death camp, Auschwitz, and yet these were continually denied by the secretary and vice secretary of war. While it could be argued that the Nazis would find a new way to kill Jewish peoples, the inability to stop any death camps resulted in the lives of hundreds of thousands being unessacarily lost.
It can be argued from many sides why we made this choice. However I, as well as Wyman, believe it is due to a anti-Semitic American people. We valued the lives of American Soldiers over the lives of helpless European Jews and we did not think they were valuable to save in these situations. Looking back the decision not to make an attempt to bomb the places which killed millions of innocent Jewish people reflects the deep ideals of Americans for the worse.
http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/wyman-jews.html
https://thenewpress.com/books/abandonment-of-jews
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-united-states-and-the-holocaust-why-auschwitz-was-not-bombed
I thought your blog post was very interesting because the question of whether or not bombing concentration camps was the right thing to do was very controversial during that time. While many Jewish prisoners were elated at the fact that the Americans were bombing certain factories at concentration camps with the expense of their own life, it was not until American soldiers set foot and claimed victory on German ground where the Jews could be liberated.
ReplyDeleteSouce - https://www.thedailybeast.com/america-didnt-bomb-auschwitz-75-years-ago-why