Last week President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Yad Vashem (יד ושם), Israel’s memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem's chairman, Avner Shalev accompanied Bush and the Rice. Bush visited several areas of the memorial, including the Hall of Remembrance, where the names of the death camps are listed, along with an eternal flame and ashes from the victims.
At one point during his tour, Bush viewed aerial photos of the Auschwitz camp taken during the war by U.S. forces and said:
"We should have bombed it," according to Shalev.
Rice must have gotten a good rush of Bush fart air when she heard this, as she then went over to discuss what Roosevelt and Churchill knew and did during the war. Bush altered his stance and then said the FDR’s and Churchill’s decision not to bomb it was "complex."
"We were talking about the often-discussed 'Could the United States have done more by bombing the train tracks?'" Rice told reporters later aboard Air Force One. "And so we were just talking about the various explanations that had been given about why that might not have been done."
Oh puhleezza - Bush actually sat and ‘pondered’ the ‘what-ifs’ regarding the decision to forgo bombing Auschwitz. That and Mitt Romney didn’t say he was more liberal than Ted Kennedy. Some things are just too incredulous for even Bushies to believe.
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, Avner added.
Call me a cynic, but it sounds like crocodile tears to me -- after all it is a photo-op at one of the most solemn places in the world. I would bet Bush couldn’t even tell you what country Auschwitz was located in.
I might get a lot of heat for this, but as a Jew and an American I find it morally reprehensible that this man is even allowed to enter Yad Vashem. George W. Bush, a world leader who out-and-out lied and distorted facts to start a war that has killed hundreds of thousands or perhaps over a million of innocent civilians, is "all choked" up at a memorial to those slaughtered in the Holocaust. George W. Bush, a chicken hawk who avoided going to Vietnam via family connections and probably has read NOTHING on the Holocaust has the gall to cavalierly say "bomb it" when referring to Auschwitz. George W. Bush, whose grandfather (Prescott Bush), was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the monetary backers of Nazi Germany, is standing over the ashes of victims from Auschwitz, Majdanek, Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec and Treblinka – the Nazi death factories grandpa indirectly helped finance.
Bush’s answer to everything – bombs and war (oh and tax cuts for the rich). Why didn’t he just sing about bombing Auschwitz to the music from a Beach Boys song? I just cannot stomach the irony. I just cannot stomach this man.
About ‘bombing’ the camps
There is good evidence Churchill and Roosevelt knew about what was going in Auschwitz by 1943. Perhaps even as early as 1941, the Western leaders were briefed about the systematic killings of Jews and establishment of other concentration camps. But by 1944, with receipt of the very detailed report from two escaped prisoners, Allied leaders knew the truth about Auschwitz - that the Nazis had unleashed a clandestine war against the Jews (and Gypsys, homosexuals, Communists and other groups deemed subversive).
In 1944 there was a growing campaign to persuade the Allies to bomb Auschwitz or the railway lines leading to it. At one point Churchill, ordered a plan be prepared, but dropped it when he was told that bombing Auschwitz would most likely kill prisoners without disrupting the killing operation. Churchill was also told that bombing the railway lines was not technically feasible. In July 1944 the U.S. War (now Defense) Department refused requests from Jewish leaders to bomb the railway lines leading to the camps. However a fleet of Air Force bombers flew along and across the five deportation railway lines on their way to bombing oil refineries nearby. They even (accidentally?) bombed part of a sub-camp of Auschwitz called Monowitz, killing some prisoners. Later several nearby military targets were bombed.
Why did Churchill and Roosevelt elect not to bomb Auschwitz? - we will never know exactly. I do not find using the excuse that it would have killed all the prisoners all that convincing – by 1944, Churchill and Roosevelt knews that virtually all the prisoners would be killed by the Nazi machine. What about bombing the rail lines into Auschwitz? That is a good question – and I cannot find an answer. Would it have diverted resources from ending the Nazi regime? Maybe. Was it technically not feasible to do? Perhaps. We know that not one of the death camps were bombed by the Allies, the Nazis did that themselves. Under orders from Himmler, the Nazis attempted to erase all traces of their monstrous crimes at Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor (sight of the largest and most successful prisoner revolt) by leveling them after they were closed. As the Russian army approached Auschwitz in early 1945, the Germans attempted to hide the evidence of their mass murder by destroying the crematoria. The Russians entered Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, finding around 7,500 abandoned prisoners, including many children.
Yes, Chimpy work will set you free. but I would think that the debate about Auschwitz is one you really should remain free of.