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CHC 2PTake Home Reading for Unit Two TestShould the Allies have bombed Auschwitz?From your reading and from the movie “Schindler’s List” that we watched, you know that Auschwitz was one of the most terrible camps set up by the Nazis. People were brutalized, shot and gassed. At least two million people were killed there, simply because of who they were. That is called “genocide.”Auschwitz was liberated or freed by Soviet soldiers in January of 1945. The Nazis had tried to blow up most of the buildings to “hide the evidence.” Most prisoners were sent out of the camp on the frightening “death marches” into Germany. Thousands died of starvation and cold.We know a lot about Auschwitz now. We can look at the documents the Nazis wrote, we can analyze the photographs and we can watch movies about it. But how much did the Allies know during the war? And an even bigger question: should the Allies have bombed Auschwitz?Auschwitz was never bombed by the Allies. But should they have done it? Many historians argue that the Allies made the right decision during the war. Bombing Auschwitz would have been difficult or impossible and perhaps even wrong. Here are some of their reasons for not bombing Auschwitz:The Allied leaders said that they didn’t have reliable information about where the camp actually was. From the air it is difficult to identify buildings or camps. They didn’t want to bomb the wrong place by accident. The Allies didn’t know what Hitler’s plan was for the Jews. It was only later that they knew he had the “Final Solution” in mind – killing them all.The Allies had only a general idea of where the camps were. The camps were too far away from our airstrips and were out of range of their fighters and bombers. Allied leaders didn’t want to risk losing any more pilots or aircraft.Allied leaders were worried that thousands of innocent prisoners in the camp would be killed by a bombing raid. They couldn’t be warned ahead of time.If the camp was damaged or destroyed, it wouldn’t have made any difference because the Nazis would have just moved the prisoners to a different camp.There were so many fights the Allies had during the war that bombing Auschwitz was not top of the list of what they had to do. They had to fight in the Pacific, attack at Normandy, protect ships in the Atlantic, develop an atomic weapon . . . there were so many important battles to fight first.Other historians argue that Auschwitz should have been bombed and that the Allies missed an opportunity when they didn’t. Here are some of their arguments:The Allies did know about Hitler’s “Final Solution” or should have known. Hitler never made his hatred of the Jews a secret.The Allies had some information about where the camps were and how they were organized. Two young men, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wexler, escaped from Auschwitz in June 1944 and drew a plan of the camp.Some bombers would have been able to get to the camps. If they were efficient, they could carry few bombs and use them well – to wreck the gas chambers and the rail lines, for example.Some argue that it was worth it to sacrifice some people already in the camp to make it impossible for more to be sent there. If the rail lines and camp facilities were destroyed, the Nazis wouldn’t be able to send anymore prisoners there. However, the prisoners who were there would be killed. That was a sacrifice well worth making.Many historians argue that bombing Auschwitz should have been more important to the Allies. After all, what is more important than saving innocent lives?The debate continues. Should the Allies have taken some of their few planes to bomb the work camps and extermination camps at Birkenau-Auschwitz? It’s up to you to decide. ................
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