February | 2019 | Amateur Historian Leonard's WWII History Blog

Why weren’t the death camps bombed by the Allies?

“At the beginning, the Allies themselves knew almost nothing about the crimes. Often, they only learned of specific killings long after they had taken place. ” In addition, the period during which the facts first became known in any detail, and during which the most Jews were being killed, coincided with the period of maximum German military superiority, and corresponding Allied military weakness. At the same time, the Germans themselves pursued a policy of deliberate, and frequently effective, deception. In 1944, as that deception began to fail, and…a series of detailed reports of continuing Nazi atrocities were reaching the west(.)

”(…Allied skepticism and disbelief, as well as political considerations and even prejudice, that served to inhibit action.”

“The failures, shared by all the Allies, were those of imagination, of response, of intelligence, of piecing together and evaluating what was known, of co-ordination, of initiative, and even at times of sympathy.”

Sir Martin Gilbert in “Auschwitz and the Allies:

Could bombings of the death camps or the rail lines to the death camps have stopped the Holocaust?

“…little could be done from outside Nazi Europe…to prevent the killings.”

Sir Martin Gilbert in “Auschwitz and the Allies: When did the Allies become Aware that the Nazis were committing genocide?

When the Allies learn of the death camps?

That the Nazis were engaged in racially motivated exterminations was known almost from the first days of the attack on Poland in 1939.

The Nazis considered that captured Polish Jewish troops POWs were subhumans and therefore not covered by the international rules and treaties on the treatment of POWs.

Polish Jewish POWs were summarily executed in the field while Slavic Polish POWs were initially treated in accord with the international rules of war.

After the defeat of Poland and Nazi occupation of western Poland, the Holocaust began almost immediately against Polish Jews.

Increasingly detailed reports with precise locations from eyewitnesses continued to be smuggled out of Nazi occupied Poland and given to the Allies.

That was done mostly by Slavic and Jewish Poles in the underground resistance including Professor Waclaw Szybalski (see “Dedications” below).

Where were the death camps?

The Nazis constructed the death camps in Nazi occupied eastern Poland.

That was to place them beyond the range of Allied aerial reconnaissance and beyond the reach of Allied military rescue such as by Allied long range bombing.

campsbombrange — Range of Allied long range bombers with fighter escorts from bases in England, Italy, and Poltava (in the Ukraine in the Soviet Union, off the LEFT edge of the map where arrows from England and Italy point).
RED SKULL & CROSS BONES: Nazi Death Camps.
Auschwitz is the last one southeast of Warsaw.
Fair use of map from:
The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of World War II by Martin Folly
Locations of death camps added by Leonard H. Cizewski

How did the Nazi death camps come to be constructed in Nazi occupied eastern Poland?

In 1939 the Nazis with the direct assistance of their Soviet ally conquered one-half of Poland and captured a significant number of Holocaust victims.

Then from 1939 to 1941 the Nazis, with the direct assistance of their Soviet ally conquered much of continental Europe, captured most of the rest of the Holocaust victims, and place them beyond the reach of Allied military rescue.

In June, 1941, the Nazis ended their alliance with the Soviets, attacked the Soviet Union, and conquered Soviet occupied eastern of Poland.

When did the death camps come within range of Allied long range bombers?

The death camp at Auschwitz did not come within range of long range Allied bombers with fighter escort in Italy and England until mid 1944

In February, 1944, the Soviets allowed the Allies to construct an airbase in Poltava in the Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union (off the left edge of the map). Auschwitz was also within range of Poltava airbase.

However, targets from that base required Soviet approval.

The Soviets were only approving targets that the Soviets assessed to be in their military interest.

While the Soviets were never asked by the Allies if they could bomb Auschwitz from Poltava, for ideological and political reasons, the Soviets probably would not have approved an Allied attack on Auschwitz from Poltava.

Polish air crews serving in the Royal Air Force were always willing to volunteer for targets in Nazi occupied Poland including Auschwitz. They were aware that Jewish and Slavic Polish citizens were being exterminated there.

By when had most of the Holocaust victims been killed?

By May 1943 most of the victims of the Holocaust have been killed. This was not known at the time and was determined after the war.

What would have been the effect of Allied bombing of Auschwitz when it came within range of Allied long range bombers in mid-1944?

While bombing Auschwitz would not have stopped the final stages of the Holocaust, the damage to death camp infrastructure might have caused delays that may have resulted in a few victims surviving until they were liberated by the Allies or Soviets.

The bombings would have sent a clear message to the world that among the moral reasons for the war was the end of the genocide the Nazis and their allies were committing.

“The most unfortunate thing for America’s moral reputation is not that Auschwitz was not bombed—people of conscience are on both sides of the issue—but that the War Department never asked the Air Force to study the feasibility of the operation. The question of whether it was possible for the Americans to bomb Auschwitz successfully was left, instead, to historians to ponder and debate years later, when lives were no longer at stake.”

Miller, Donald L., Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany (p. 327). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

Were any Jews being exterminated at Auschwitz when Auschwitz was within range of Allied bombers?

In about June, 1944, the Allies received information that the anti-Semitic Hungarian fascist Nazi allied government of Hungary (and not Nazi Germans) was sending Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz for extermination.

Based on that information, Jewish organizations renewed their requests to the Allies to bomb Auschwitz.

The War Department said that was not possible because of other priority targets.

What were some of the other reasons the Allies gave for not bombing the camps?

The U.S. said its policy was that the rescue of anyone would be accomplished by the military defeat of the Nazis and the occupation of Nazi Germany.

The British Foreign Office cited as reasons not to proceed with bombing Auschwitz the difficulty of such a raid, the diversion of air resources from other targets, and the possibility that Auschwitz was not exterminating Jews at the time of the raid.

What about bombing the rail lines to Auschwitz?

The rail lines to Auschwitz were deep in eastern Europe and mostly beyond the range of Allied bombers.

To diminish the Nazis ability to move troops and supplies to the front, the Allies did prioritize the destruction of the Nazi transportation network by targeting the infrastructure needed to produce and transport coal that fueled Nazi locomotives and the Nazi transportation infrastructure.

The Polish Home Army and Soviet partisans were constantly attacking Nazi rail lines in Nazi occupied eastern Poland for military reasons.

The Allies were aware that the Nazis were often able to repair bombed rail lines within twenty-four hours, at times using slave laborers who were being worked to death.

While 24 hours of rail line disruption may have had some short term value during military operations, that was insufficient to have significantly disrupted death camp operations.

After the war, the Allies discovered that at times if Allied attacks disrupted transportation for both the military needs and movement of victims to death camps, the Nazi officials would prioritize transporting victims to the death camps over military needs. If no other transport was available, the Nazis marched the victims by foot.

Did any Allied armed forces attack Nazi concentration or death camps?

After the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, the Nazis built the Gęsiówka concentration camp in the Ghetto ruins to hold Jews on their way to death camps.

During the August, 1944 Warsaw Uprising, units of the Polish Home Army attacked the Gęsiówka concentration camp and liberated Jews from Crete on their way to death camps. A few joined the Polish Home Army and the Polish Home Army assisted others to go into hiding.

Auschwitz was hit with Allied bombs aimed at nearby Nazi war plant.

“…(O)n August 20, (the Fifteenth Air Force based in Foggia, Italy) made the first of three raids on the I. G. Farben synthetic oil and rubber plant near Monowitz, a prison camp that supplied the Farben works with slave labor.

“Monowitz-Buna, as it was called, was part of the enormous Auschwitz concentration camp complex and was located less than five miles from the camp’s main murder mill, Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, site of the gas chambers and crematoria. “

Miller, Donald L.. Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany (p. 321). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

Sir Martin Gilbert documents that at least eight off target bombs from those raids struck Auschwitz.

bombmapellipse — LEFT: Nazi I.G. Farben synthetic oil and rubber plant using slave labor from Auschwitz.
RIGHT: Auschwitz which was hit by stray bombs dropped by the Allies intended to be aimed at the I.G. Farben plant.
From Auschwitz and the Allies by Sir Martin Gilbert

Off target bombs such as this were frequent and tragically caused many casualties among Allied troops and civilians in Nazi occupied Europe.

Could military action have stopped the Holocaust or ended it earlier?

Yes, in 1938 or 1939.

In 1938 the Holocaust might have been prevented by the military defense of Czechoslovakia in response to Nazi demands that Czechoslovakia cede the Sudentanland to Nazi Germany.

In 1938, the Nazi armed forces were very weak.

Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union were willing to use their armed forces to defend the territorial integrity and independence of Czechoslovakia.

But they needed a military commitment from France and Great Britain which declined.

Some historians assess that an alliance such as that could have militarily defeated the Nazis in 1938 or that the German armed forces would have overthrown the Nazis in the face of military resistance from such a coalition.

Such a coalition would have been even stronger had the U.S. committed its armed forces to the defense of Czechoslovakia.

In 1939, the Holocaust might have been prevented if the U.S. joined France and Britain in defending Poland against the attacks by the Nazis and their Soviet ally.

While Poland was beyond the reach of U.S. armed force, the U.S. could have joined Britain and France in attacking Germany’s western border with France. The Nazis, even with their new military ally, the Soviet Union, might have been defeated or WWII would have been much shorter.

The Nazi armed forces would have needed to defend its western border from three major military powers while trying to conquer Poland, something they were not prepared to do in 1939.

That would have made it far more difficult for the Nazis to capture Holocaust victims, construct the death camp infrastructure, transport victims to the death camps, and exterminate them.

What about the Soviet Union bombing the death camps?

Nazi death camps were within range of Soviet bombers much sooner than they were within range of Allied bombers.

By August, 1944, Auschwitz was within 100 miles of the Soviet front lines, well within range of Soviet medium and short range bombers.

The Soviets never took military action against the Nazi death camps because destroying them was never a Soviet military or political priority.

The successor states of the Soviet Union and especially the Russian Federation need to be asked the same questions about military attacks on the death camps that is asked of the Allies.

The successor states of the Soviet Union, especially the Russian Federation, also need to be held accountable for their two year military alliance with the Nazis that directly contributed to and enabled the Holocaust.

Dedications:

Professor Waclaw Szybalski, D.Sc., Professor Emeritus of Oncology

University of Wisconsin

Professor Szybalski participated in the resistance to the Nazis in occupied Poland.

During the questions and answers after the December 8, 2014 premiere in Madison, Wisconsin of Anna Ferens’ documentary on his life, “The Essence of Life” Professor Szybalski shared how he helped gather information on the location and layout of one of the extermination camps. That information was smuggled out to the Allies with a plea to bomb the camps and their rail lines.

Professor Szybalski wondered if the Allies failure to bomb the camps was because of some failure on his part.

Felix A. Cizewski

Felix A. Cizewski is my late father.

He served in the 45th Signal Company of the 45th Infantry Division.

After he died, I researched his service.

Combat units of his division defeated the SS to liberate Dachau.

My father and the 45th Signal Company were not at Dachau at the moment of liberation but were moving to their next assigned location outside of Dachau. Their role was to provide communications support for the division.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the U.S. Center for Military History recognize all members of the 45th Infantry Division at that time as members of a liberating unit. That includes my late father.

Main sources used in this post:

Folly, Martin, The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of World War II

Gilbert, Sir Martin, Auschwitz and the Allies: How the Allies responded to the news of Hitler’s Final Solution

Miller, Donald L., Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany

Szybalski, Professor Waclaw, Discussion, post-premier of “Essence of Life” biographical film by Anne Ferrens, Madison, Wisconsin, December 16, 2014.

Sources for the Polish Home Army’s liberation of Jews during the August, 1944 Warsaw Uprising:

Beevor, Antony, The Second World War

Ferens, Anna, documentary film “Jews in the Warsaw Rising 1944”.