[quote=CTNana;6262]Firstly, when did Churchill make the speech from which he quotes, or more importantly when do you think the Allies really did know what was happening? Or for that matter the Church?[quote]
Morse's
quote comes Churchill's statement made after he had seen the Belsen liberation photographs in April 1945.
However, Morse would be able to confirm this from his book, Churchill and Allies were made aware of the general situation of the Jews as far back as 1941. Chucrchill made the following speech in November 1941:
"None has suffered more cruelly than the Jew the unspeakable evils wrought upon the bodies and spirits of men by Hitler and his vile regime. The Jew bore the brunt of the Nazi's first onslaught upon the citadels of freedom and human dignity. He has borne and continued to bear a burden that might have seen beyond endurance. He has not allowed it to break his spirit; he has never lost the will to resist. Assuredly in the day of victory the Jew's suffering and his part in the struggle will not be forgotten. "
By the middle of 1942 he stated in stronger terms:
"the most bestial, the most squalid and the most senseless of all their offences, namely, the mass deportation of Jews from France, with the pitiful horrors attendant upon the calculated and final scattering of families. This tragedy fills me with astonishment as well as with indignation, and it illustrates as nothing else can the utter degradation of the Nazi nature and theme, and degradation of all who lend themselves to its unnatural and perverted passions."
However, as the the article in this
link highlights, the Allies were able to intercept some specific German messages that alluded to the Jews not just being deprted but killed.
And the Jewish Council also provided proof to the Allies from eye-witnesses as to what was actually happening in some of the camps:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/...t/UKShoah.html Quote:
Secondly have people really suggested that the allies should have bombed the camps? I just cringe at the thought that this was viewed (presumably with hindsight) as an humanitarian alternative, besides not appreciating how big a PR coup it would have been for Hitler.
I'd be really interested to hear all of your views.
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The possibility of bombing either the camps or other facilities linked to the camps is rather contentious, as shown by these two articles:
Why didn't the Allies bomb Auschwitz? Could The Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz-Birkenau?
However, personally, I not convinced by either the arguement that the camps could be be reached or that the situation of the Jews could have been made worse as an act of revenge.
Some of the camps were accessible by bombers, and indeed, some war industiries attached to some of the camps were bombed.
As to making the position of the Jews even worse? How much worse could it have got?
As the above links show, the Allies knew that the Jews were being killed, so those who argue that my position is based on hindsight are mistaken. It wasn't just a case that the Allies thought the camps were concentration camps where the Jews were isolated, and so didn't want to inflict unnecessary casualties. They kew the exterminations were happening. The only questionwas the degree and extenet of the murdering