Bush Says U.S. Should Have Bombed WWII Death Camp

FoxNews ^ | Friday, January 11, 2008 | AP

[SolidWood]

JERUSALEM — President Bush had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of Israel's Holocaust memorial Friday and told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the U.S. should have bombed Auschwitz to halt the killing, the memorial's chairman said.

Bush emerged from a tour of the Yad Vashem memorial calling it a "sobering reminder" that evil must be resisted, and praising victims for not losing their faith.

...(snip)

Bush was visibly moved as he toured the site, said Yad Vashem's chairman, Avner Shalev.

"Twice, I saw tears well up in his eyes," Shalev said.

At one point, Bush viewed aerial photos of the Auschwitz camp taken during the war by U.S. forces and called Rice over to discuss why the American government had decided against bombing the site, Shalev said.

The Allies had detailed reports about Auschwitz during the war from Polish partisans and escaped prisoners. But they chose not to bomb the camp, the rail lines leading to it, or any of the other Nazi death camps, preferring instead to focus all resources on the broader military effort, a decision that became the subject of intense controversy years later.

...(snip)

"We should have bombed it," Bush said, according to Shalev.

In the memorial's visitors' book, the president wrote simply, "God bless Israel, George Bush."

...

"I was most impressed that people in the face of horror and evil would not forsake their God. In the face of unspeakable crimes against humanity, brave souls — young and old — stood strong for what they believe," Bush said.

"I wish as many people as possible would come to this place. It is a sobering reminder that evil exists, and a call that when evil exists we must resist it," he said.

...

[hinckley buzzard]

I always tell my students this when I teach the Holocaust and WWII

I hope you also tell them how virtually impossible it would have been for B-17's to bomb a railroad line, and just for class discussion ask how many American pilots and crewmen should die in the effort.

[hinckley buzzard]

However, I don’t see why they wouldn’t have gone after the rail lines. Cutting off Germany’s main transport system should have gone a long way to ending the war earlier.

German's transportation system was attacked repeatedly by the bombing of urban railyards and concentrations of infrastructure that might have been vulnerable to carpet bombing. Consider that even in the VN War we spent countless missions trying to hit a rail bridge in the North and finally succeeded only when the first generation of "smart bombs" came on line in the early 70's.

[airborne]

Bush didn’t happen to ask Jordon to return their land to “Palestine” did he?

[Old Student]

“i don’t think the allied powers were even aware of their exixtence until they marched up to the gates to liberate them.”

Unfortunately, not true. Maybe the GI’s themselves, but the President and War Department certainly knew. They were afraid that the effort would prevent a decisive victory against the NAZIs, or perhaps even allow them time to spring one of the many surprises they were working on, like usable jet fighters, or A-bombs.

[eleni121]

However this is contradicted by the US support for the “palestinian” islamofascists.

---

Contradicted as well by his actions regarding Kosovo-—recognizing an Islamic state and rewarding islamofascists who brutally murdered thousands of Serb allies in WWII.

I confess—I do not understand his rationale for completing the evil started by Clinton and NATO.

[traumer]

But only with the approval of the Congress...

:o)

[piasa]

Consider that even in the VN War we spent countless missions trying to hit a rail bridge in the North and finally succeeded only when the first generation of "smart bombs" came on line in the early 70's.

Wasn't that the rail bridge where the pilots were restricted to using the most impractical approach route? I vaguely remember reading an account by one of the pilots about that.

[rmlew]

These were death camps, the inmates weren't expected to survive. The arguement is that by bombing the camps, some might have escaped, and that by bombing the rails, the trains would have been stopped, leaving the Germans with the less desireable option of doing the killing in a less efficient, more public manner. It's an interesting historical arguement, but pure speculation, and I don't think conclusions can be drawn from either decision.

They weren't all death camps. Aushwitz was a comlex of many camps. Only Birkenau was an off-the-train gassing camp. The others had untermenchen divided between those who could work and those who could not. The inform, old, children etc were killed immediately.
For most of the rest it was a work-till-you-die camp. Starvation diets, limited sanitation, rags for clothing, and brutality and beatings ensure that most did die. A few who had skills useful to the Nazi war effort were housed in special factories leading to lower mortality rates.

[goodwithagun]

Who peed in your Cheerios?