The bombing of Auschwitz revisited: A critical analysis

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Volumn 10, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 267-298

  Levy, Richard H ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33748323973     PISSN: 87566583     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/hgs/10.3.267     Document Type: Article

References (72)

1. Gideon Hausner, Justice in Jerusalem (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), pp. 243-44, 344 45; Prosecution Document T/1177 from the Eichmann Trial; Central Zionist Archives Z4/14870. The July 11 document shows Weizmann's pessimistic opinion of the practical value of bombing Auschwitz. Its relationship to the prosecution of Eichmann is unclear
2. The Guardian, May 31, June 3, June 7, 1961
3. Sunday Telegraph (London), June 4, 1961
4. Parliamentary Debates, Commons, Fifth Series, vol. 642 (1961), pp. 202-203. Many documents were later opened to the public
5. David S. Wyman, "Why Auschwitz Was Never Bombed," Commentary 65:5 (May 1978): pp. 37-46
6. See also "Letters from Readers" 66:1 (July 1978): pp. 7
7. David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984), p. 288 ff
8. Frank W. Brecher, "David Wyman and the Historiography of America's Response to the Holocaust: Counter-Considerations," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 5:4 (1990), pp. 423-46
9. See also Wyman's response in the same issue, pp. 485-86
10. Lucy S. Dawidowicz, "Could the United States Have Rescued the European Jews from Hitler?," This World no. 12 (Fall 1985): p. 15
11. reprinted as "Could America Have Rescued Europe's Jews?" in What Is the Use of Jewish History? (New York: Schocken, 1992)
12. Richard Foregger, "The Bombing of Auschwitz," Aerospace Historian 34 (1987): pp. 98-110
13. See also Robert H. Hodges, "The Bombing of Auschwitz: A Clarification" and Michael G. Moskow, "The Bombing of Auschwitz: A Reply," Aerospace Historian 35 (1988), pp. 123-26, 127-29
14. James H. Kitchens III, "The Bombing of Auschwitz Reexamined," Journal of Military History 58:2 (April 1994): pp. 233-66
15. Richard Foregger, "Technical Analysis of Methods to Bomb the Gas Chambers at Auschwitz," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 5:4 (1990): pp. 403-21
16. Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies (New York: Henry Holt, 1982), pp. 236-37. Both dates are given for the second telegram. Gilbert treats these early appeals for railway bombing as quite distinct from the later appeals for bombing Auschwitz itself
17. Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (Chicago: Quadrangle , 1961), p. 543
18. Wyman, "Auschwitz," p. 38
19. and Wyman, Abandonment, p. 290
20. and Gilbert, Auschwitz, pp. 219-220
21. Richard Breitman, Allied Knowledge of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943-1944, in Verne W. Newton, ed., FDR and the Holocaust (New York: St. Martins Press, 1996), p. 175, has identified several intelligence items relating to Auschwitz which reached the West between March 1943 and January 1944. Some of these were public, others known only to Jewish organizations. He asserts on this basis that planning a bombing raid on Auschwitz might have begun in early 1944. For reasons which may have included failure to separate the intelligence wheat from the chaff, or sheer disbelief, these early reports do not seem to have prompted anyone to propose military action of any kind. The Gruenbaum/Pinkerton and Rosenheim communications and many other documents cited in this study reflect what their authors knew or believed when they were written
22. The issue of disbelief is thoroughly considered by Deborah E. Lipstadt, Beyond Belief (New York: The Free Press, 1986)
23. Gruenbaum's Memorandum of June 7, Central Zionist Archives S 26/1232; Minutes of the Meeting of the Jewish Agency Executive, June 11, Central Zionist Archives. Gruenbaum's letter of June 21 to Barlas, Central Zionist Archives S 26/1284. Gruenbaum's correspondence, but not the minutes of the meeting of the Executive, were noted by Yehuda Bauer, American Jewry and the Holocaust (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981), p. 496, note 31
24. Sunday Telegraph (London), June 4, 1961, p. 15
25. Milt Groban, Letter to the Editor, Commentary, July 1978, p. 11
26. Charles M. Bachman, Letter to the Editor, Commentary, November 1978, p. 20
27. Jewish Chronicle (London), November 16, 1962, pp. 25, 43
28. For example Solly Zuckerman, From Apes to Warlords (New York: Harper and Row, 1978), p. 217ff
29. David R. Mets, Master of Airpower, General Carl A. Spaatz (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1988), p. 199ff
30. Lord Tedder, G.C.B., With Prejudice (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1967), p. 502ff
31. Wesley F. Craven and James L. Cate eds., The Army Air Forces in World War II (Washington: Office of Air Force History, 1983), vol. 3, p. 72 ff
32. Foregger, "Technical Analysis," pp. 412-14
33. Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life (New York: Henry Holt, 1991), p. 783
34. Bernard Wasserstein, Britain and the Jews of Europe 1939-1945 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), pp. 319-20
35. Mario D. Fenyo, Hitler, Horthy, and Hungary (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972), p. 212
36. "The Strategic Bomber Strikes Ahead" in Wesley F. Craven and James L. Cate, eds., The Army Air Forces in World War II, vol. 3, p. 290
37. Abba Eban, My People (New York: Random House, 1968), p. 427
38. Chaim Barlas, Hatzalah Bimei Shoah, pp. 293-95
39. Norman Rose, Chaim Weizmann" A Biography (New York: Viking, 1986), p. 394
40. Rafael Medoff, The Deafening Silence (New York: Shapolsky Publishers, 1988), p. 160
41. The full text of McCloy's letter to Kubowitzki of August 14, 1944 appears in Wyman, Abandonment, p. 296. The original is on permanent display in the Holocaust Museum in Washington
42. Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys (Chicago: Ziff-Davis, 1947)
43. Uwe Dietrich Adam, "The Gas Chambers" in Francois Furet, ed., Unanswered Questions (New York: Schocken, 1989), p. 151
44. Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 527
45. Jean-Claude Pressac, Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers (New York: Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989), p. 253
46. Foregger, "Bombing," p. 106
47. Hodges, "Bombing," p. 125
48. Dino A. Brugioni and Robert G. Poirier, The Holocaust Revisited: A Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Complex (Washington: U.S. Department of Commerce [National Technical Information Service, NTISUB/E/280-002], February 1979)
49. Dino A. Brugioni, "Auschwitz-Birkenau: Why the World War II Photo Interpreters Failed to Identify the Extermination Complex," Military Intelligence 9:1 (January-March 1983): pp. 50-55
50. Danuta Dombrowska, "Majdanek," Encyclopedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1974), vol. 11, pp. 794-95
51. Shlomo Aronson, cited by Lucy S. Dawidowicz, "Could the United States," p. 173
52. Pressac, p. 253
53. Miklos Nyiszli (trans. Tibere Kremer and Richard Seaver), Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account (New York: Frederick Fell, 1960), pp. 84-89
54. The book reads "There is no doubt that destruction of the gas chambers and crematoria would have saved many lives"; Milt Groban, "Letter to the Editor," Commentary (July 1978), p. 10
55. Wyman, "Reply to Letter to the Editor," Commentary, (July 1978), p. 12
56. Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War against the Jews 1933-1945 (New York: Bantam Books, 1986), pp. 140-42
57. Herbert Loebel, "Letter to the Editor" Commentary, July 1978, pp. 7, 10
58. and "Letter to the Editor" Holocaust and Genocide Studies 6:4 (1990), p. 442
59. C. Martin Sharp and Michael J. F. Bowyer, Mosquito (London: Faber and Faber, 1967), pp. 241-44, photographs on pp. 96-97
60. On the Amiens raid see Jewish Chronicle, November 16, 1962, pp. 25 and 43
61. Lawrence H. Blum, "Letter to the Editor" Commentary, July 1978, p. 7
62. Wyman, Abandonment, p. 409, n. 63
63. Dawidowicz, "Could the United States," p. 171
64. Richard H. Levy, The Bombing of Auschwitz Revisited: A Critical Analysis, in FDR and the Holocaust, pp. 242-43
65. Gilbert, Auschwitz, caption to Figure 28
66. Roger M. Williams, Commonweal 105 (November 24, 1978), p. 751
67. Loebel, Commentary, pp. 7, 10
68. John J. McCloy, in interview with Morton Mintz, The Washington Post, April 17, 1983
69. Aaron Lerner, "Letter to the Editor" Commentary (July 1978): p. 7
70. A review and subsequent exchange (John P. Fox, European Studies Review 10:1 [January 1980], pp. 138-46; and 10:4 [October 1980], pp. 487-92) air sharp differences on these documents. As the authors of the documents thought they were involved in preparing to bomb Auschwitz, it may be possible to draw conclusions about motives. But these civil servants and officers did not know that a British operation had been ruled out since July 15, and only an American operation was under consideration. If Sinclair had found a practical way for the RAF to bomb Auschwitz, the whole affair would have started in mid-July. The last half of July was spent, so far as this issue is concerned, waiting for Spaatz to visit the Air Ministry
71. Sir John Slessor, The Central Blue (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1957), pp. 615 ff. Yahil, pp. 638-39, says British planes bombed Warsaw in support of the Polish uprising. This is wrong
72. Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy (London: Cassell, 1954), pp. 113-28