Posted on 01/19/2002 1:36:13 PM PST by loliput
Britain 'did not do enough to save Jews'
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
(Filed: 17/01/2002)
BRITAIN should have done more and acted sooner to stop Jews being killed during the Second World War, according to the "official" historian for this month's Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations.
David Cesarani, professor of history at Southampton University, says the British "tend to have a rather self-satisfied perception of the Second World War as unambiguously a 'good' war from which this country emerged triumphant and morally vindicated".
His essay has been placed on the Home Office website to set the theme for this year's event, which marks the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp on Jan 27, 1945.
Unlike last year, however, the BBC is not televising the national event, which is to be held in Manchester. The Corporation's decision has disappointed Jewish organisations, though the BBC will broadcast programmes, documentaries and films around the theme of the Holocaust.
There was an estimated audience of 1.2 million for last year's live broadcast of the ceremony in London, attended by the Prince of Wales, leaders of most major religions and senior politicians.
The Home Office has decided that the theme for this year's commemoration is to be "Britain and the Holocaust" and an essay has been commissioned from Prof Cesarani entitled "Britain, the Holocaust and its Legacy: the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day, 2002."
It suggests that the Holocaust "is part of our national story because it impinges directly on the history of this island and its peoples". Thousands of Jews found refuge in Britain before the war and survivors came afterwards.
Prof Cesarani says many ordinary people helped the refugees and the fact that Britain went to war helped to save the remnants of European Jewry from annihilation.
But he adds: "Questions remain over whether more could have been done, and sooner, to succour the victims of Nazi persecution. The British government and the public knew about the Nazi persecution of Jews, homosexuals, Sinti and Romaa yet it maintained normal relations with the Third Reich."
While Britain took 70,000 Jewish refugees, Prof Cesarani maintains that many more could have come were it not for restrictions.
"While there was more to be proud of than to regret, there were shameful episodes," he adds.
These include the internment and deportation of foreign Jews as "enemy aliens" and the actions of some Channel Islanders, the one group of British citizens who came under German control.
"There were some righteous gentiles on the Channel Islands who protected Jews but many more islanders, who felt they had little choice in the matter, collaborated. Would the mainlanders have acted any differently?" he asks.
"We can never know, so we should be wary of now laying claim to some special, ingrained tolerance."
Prof Cesarani says that while the British government knew about the slaughter of the Jews "from the moment it began" there was no official condemnation until late in the day and "no attempt to prevent it even when counter measures were feasible".
He adds: "The uncomfortable truth is that Britain failed to respond with urgency to genocide in progress when it could do something about it."
BRITAIN should have done more and acted sooner to stop Jews being killed during the Second World War, according to the "official" historian for this month's Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations.We should have done more ourselves.
Israel. They aren't an ally. They are a dependant. If they want to do something constructive. Go conquer Baghdad. What's wrong bigshots? I thought the vaunted IDF could whip the entire Middle East with one arm? Go sneak up on Iraq like you did the U.S.S. Liberty.
Or at least spy on them like you do us (ha!), so you can sell radar defense systems to China off our tech. American Jews are fools for backing Israel. Israelites admit they use American Jews like the IRA uses Boston Irish Catholics.
But it is the British who probably put most of the Jews of Europe in harm's way, for the cowardly appeasment move by Neville Chamberlain.
Nah, I don't agree.
Now ISRAEL, THAT'S an ally!
Not technically true. The allies were told about the massacres from the moment they began. But being told is not the same as knowing. The context of the entire episode--which everyone forgets--was the appalling propaganda campaign of the First World War.
Everyone knew the Nazis dislike and persecuted Jews. But most people, after all the atrocity propaganda of WWI turned out to be a lie, were not prepared to believe in extermination camps.
Yo, Brits... welcome to the club.
Don't forget America -- it's blamed, too! After everyone has been sued, and everyone has paid everybody else reparations, maybe only then can the Nazis bear responsibility for the Holocaust.
This practically left the whole war effort awash in hypocrisy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
