Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Perhaps some learning has happened after all.

"Since the end of the war there has been much revisionist history about the role, and acts, of the Allied forces. Some of it challenges the idea that one side was 'evil', and the other 'good', and perhaps rightly so. Documents showed that the British and Americans were well aware of the extermination of the Jews in Auschwitz as far back as 1943 -- and dismissed a petition to bomb the gas chambers in the summer of 1944. A British Foreign Office official wrote that bombing Auschwitz might lead to a 'flood of refugees' who would head towards Palestine, then still a British protectorate, and demand an independent homeland. Maybe the bombing of Auschwitz would have made little difference, most of its victims were already dead by then. Maybe even more people would have been killed in the attack -- who knows. What is certain is that winning the war and maintaining a strong anti-immigration policy were more important priorities for the Allies than helping the Jews. 

Much has also been written about the role of Russian soldiers in their campaign of rape against German women. I wish I could say that I can find it in my heart to feel sorry for these women but, given what happened to my family at the hands of the Nazi regime they supported, I cannot. You will have to understand that I cannot be objective about this subject -- my own suffering and loss will always be too deep and too raw. Intellectually, however, I believe that human rights applied to everyone and that atrocities committed against anyone are wrong."

Page 145, "After Auschwitz" by Eva Schloss | Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17828703-after-auschwitz

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