US 'should have bombed Auschwitz'

**November Rain** · 11-01-2008, 07:47 PM

From Yahoo news.

By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 36 minutes ago

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.
Wearing a yarmulke, Bush placed a red-white-and-blue wreath on a stone slab that covers ashes of Holocaust victims taken from six extermination camps. He also lit a torch memorializing the victims.
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.
Between 1.1 million and 1.5 million people were killed at the camp.
"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."
The memorial was closed to the public and under heavy guard Friday, with armed soldiers standing on top of some of the site's monuments and a police helicopter and surveillance blimp hovering in the air overhead.
"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.
It was Bush's second visit to the Holocaust memorial, a regular stop on the visits of foreign dignitaries. His first was in 1998, as governor of Texas. The last U.S. president to visit was Bill Clinton in 1994.
Bush, making the most extensive Mideast trip of his presidency, was accompanied on his tour by a small party that included Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
At the compound, overlooking a forest on Jerusalem's outskirts, Bush visited a memorial to the 1.5 million Jewish children killed in the Holocaust, featuring six candles reflected 1.5 million times in a hall of mirrors. At the site's Hall of Remembrance, he heard a cantor sing a Jewish prayer for the dead.
Shalev presented Bush with illustrations of the Bible drawn by the Jewish artist Carol Deutsch, who perished in the Holocaust.

Deutsch created the works while in hiding from the Nazis in Belgium. He was informed upon, and died in 1944 in the Buchenwald camp. After the war, his daughter Ingrid discovered that the Nazis had confiscated their furniture and valuables but had left behind a single item: a meticulously crafted wooden box adorned with a Star of David and a seven-branched menorah, containing a collection of 99 of the artist's illustrations of biblical scenes.
The originals are on display at Yad Vashem. The memorial recently decided to produce a special series of 500 replicas, the first of which was to be presented to Bush.
Debbie Deutsch-Berman, a Yad Vashem employee whose grandfather was Deutsch's brother, said she was proud that Bush would be given her relative's artwork.
"These are not just his paintings, they are his legacy, and the fact that they survived shows that as much as our enemies tried to destroy the ideas that these paintings embody, they failed," she said. Later Friday, Bush was to wrap up his three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories with a visit to Christian holy sites in Galilee before departing for Kuwait, the next stop on his Mideast tour.

Comments?

**Deus Ex** · 11-01-2008, 07:57 PM

The Jews have milked this holocaust thing enough now.

You'd think they were the only ones who died in that war the way they bang on about it.

**chinthee** · 11-01-2008, 08:01 PM

^Yes, I quite agree. Enough is enough. And, I've been sympathetic to their plight, but really, enough is enough.

**November Rain** · 11-01-2008, 08:08 PM

Maybe I'm seeing his comments in a different way.

He asks why the US didn't bomb Auschwitz whilst expressing sympathy for those that died there. Just how would they have avoided killing all the inmates (at that time) if they'd levelled it? Would they have said it was a justifiable action to prevent more killing?

I just find it an interesting comment to make.

**Deus Ex** · 11-01-2008, 08:15 PM

Better to bomb it than not, I suppose, but the bigger war effort had to take priority.

**Texpat** · 11-01-2008, 08:18 PM

but...

Bombing a prison/execution chamber during WWII wouldn't make much sense militarily.
You'll inevitably kill more prisoners than guards and merely make the conditions worse.
If your goal is to end the suffering, hit trans, comm, war production.

Airstrikes are a funny animal -- it's amazing what goes into the rationale. The Army and Air Force are always at odds over what's #1. Even during WWII they factored in weather, distance, impact, probability of success.

Today they drop smart bombs that aren't cheap. The amount of debate over multiple factors is not a fleeting consideration. What is always interesting is how targeting boards are comprised. What should be the prime target? How much are you willing to put at risk to destroy that target?

I can't imagine a scenario where an extermination camp would be a target.

**chinthee** · 11-01-2008, 08:20 PM

^Especially given the lack of precision in bombing campaigns in WWII. Absolutely would not be on anyone's bombing plan.

**November Rain** · 11-01-2008, 08:43 PM

Originally Posted by Texpat

Bombing a prison/execution chamber during WWII wouldn't make much sense militarily. You'll inevitably kill more prisoners than guards and merely make the conditions worse. If your goal is to end the suffering, hit trans, comm, war production.

That's exactly what I thought. So, isn't that a strange/ill informed comment to make whilst there & lighting candles for those that died?

**Texpat** · 11-01-2008, 08:52 PM

He was expressing a desire to have shut off the tap to these execution prisons before more were showered to death. Better to just walk past, do the princess wave, and say nothing -- and be railed aginst in the press for having no comment.

He's mistaken in my opinion. A JCTB would never approve bombing a death camp or POW camp.

Interestingly, I'm not sure what the allies considered Jews in death camps. Were they POWs? Just prisoners? I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when the Allies considered this -- I'm sure they did.

**Ban Saray** · 11-01-2008, 10:25 PM

my first thought was callous! My second thought was typical comment from GWB.
Bombing raids in the second world war were planned by statiticians, there was ione in particular who became famous (can't remember his name) the theory he expounded was the numbers game - basically you need to drop x+y bombs to hit x targets.
Not very scientifica at al really, so imagine the waste if they wanted to clean up these camps.
And I agree that they have had enough sympathy shown towards them, time they stood up and made peace with the world, particularly the Palestinians.

**madjbs** · 11-01-2008, 10:42 PM

George bush quote

"killing lives in order to saves lives is not acceptable"

How does this fit in with his current crusades and this comment?

Luckydog · 11-01-2008, 10:45 PM

Filmed there in 1973. It is a sobering experience to see piles of Spectacles, Crutches, Artificial Limbs, Toys etc that were taken from the victims.......

Heard many horrifying stories of things that happened there, but one sticks in my memory.

Apparently, a particularly nasty German Guard was overseeing the digging of a hole by three men, in a wood outside the Camp one day.
When it was about 8ft deep he decided to have some 'Fun'......

"Come out" he ordered one offering the butt of his rifle. The man scrambled out. "Fill it in" he said. "What! You want me to bury them alive?" asked the Guy. "Yes" said the Guard. "I refuse" Yelled the man. "They are only Jews" the soldier said "You are a Christian are you not?"
"Yes, but I will not kill them" muttered the man sullenly.
With that the Guard shoved him back down into the hole.
"Come out" he ordered the two Jews.
They got out.
"Fill it in" ordered the German..........AND THEY DID!

**barbaro** · 12-01-2008, 01:43 AM

OP:

Please put up a link within 12 hours.

Links are required in Issues.

Not doubting you, nor the article, but we just need everyone to put up links for articles.

Thanks, MM

**Little Chuchok** · 12-01-2008, 02:48 AM

^Bush: US Should Have Bombed Auschwitz | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

Not a very hard link to find mien fuhrer.

**barbaro** · 12-01-2008, 03:27 AM

Originally Posted by Little Chuchok

^Bush: US Should Have Bombed Auschwitz | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

Not a very hard link to find mien fuhrer.

It's for the OP to link it.

Not you.

And it's not up to US to go and search for the link.

**Ban Saray** · 12-01-2008, 05:04 AM

^ lazy sod, though OP ie NR was beyond reproach

**barbaro** · 12-01-2008, 05:29 AM

^ It's just a rule because in the past there was false links.

It's fair to all, not lazy.

**November Rain** · 12-01-2008, 07:19 AM

^ Sorry, I didn't know the rule. I will in future.

Thanks for doing that LC.

**Property** · 12-01-2008, 07:48 AM

The Jews killed Jesus. Enough said!

**Texpat** · 12-01-2008, 07:56 AM

A little context might be useful there Prop.

What is the point you're trying to make?

The Jews killed Jesus

Are you happy or angry or just confused?

Is the pretty data set from 1870 or 1910?

Overall D+

(really, I've completely missed your point)

**TizMe** · 12-01-2008, 08:13 AM

I too visited Auschwitz a few years ago. The story of the human hair had a deep impact on me.

When the camp was liberated, 7000 kilos of human hair were found awaiting shipment to factories to be converted into fabric.

In November 1943, the U.S. Congress held hearings concerning the U.S. State Department's total inaction regarding the plight of European Jews. President Franklin Roosevelt responded to the mounting political pressure by creating the War Refugee Board (WRB) in January 1944 to aid neutral countries in the rescue of Jews.

The WRB also advocated the aerial bombing of Auschwitz, although it never occurred since it was not considered a vital military target. The U.S. and its military Allies maintained that the best way to stop Nazi atrocities was to defeat Germany as quickly as possible.

In April 1944, two Jewish inmates escaped from Auschwitz and made it safely into Czechoslovakia. One of them, Rudolf Vrba, submitted a detailed report to the Papal Nuncio in Slovakia, which was then forwarded to the Vatican, received there in mid-June. Thus far, Pope Pius XII had not issued a public condemnation of Nazi maltreatment and subsequent mass murder of Jews, and he chose to continue his silence.

**stroller** · 12-01-2008, 08:25 AM

A typical thoughtless Bush remark.
The boy hasn't got a brain.

This was a controversial issue during the war and has continued to be so.
It would have been perfectly feasible to bomb the camps and/or supply lines, the info and resources to do so were there, that was not the problem.

It was a matter of weighting the possible outcomes against each other: with camps and supply lines destroyed, the Nazis might have just mass-murdered rather than incarcerated Jews and others, as they did in Poland - this was the main consideration against a bombing campaign.

Further, one should not forget that in allied nations, particularly the US, there were anti-semitic pressure lobbies which were all too content to let things 'run their course' without interference.

**Butterfly** · 12-01-2008, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by November Rain

"We should have bombed it," Bush said

What a fucking idiotic comment to make. He has been making silly comments from the beginning of this tour, he is really an incompetent fool. If only he could see the misery of the Palestinians and be as compassionate.

Originally Posted by Deus Ex

The Jews have milked this holocaust thing enough now.
You'd think they were the only ones who died in that war the way they bang on about it.

Israeli sorry excuse to abuse others is gone, everybody has seen their "real game", they became the same Nazis they tried to flee and demonized. Strange, isn't it ?

**Jet Gorgon** · 12-01-2008, 09:39 AM

Another Bush-whacking story. I would think he meant bomb it to take out the cold-blooded killers of these people.
I tire of US bashers. You try leading a company let alone a fekin country. Then you'll know what it's like.

**Butterfly** · 12-01-2008, 10:09 AM

^ don't be so naive dear, you are just turning into a Wallmart American

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