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Why Auschwitz Was Never Bombed
- Abstract
A RECURRING question since World War II has been why the United States rejected requests to bomb the gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz, or the railroads leading to Auschwitz.
Such requests began to be numerous in the spring of 1944. At that time, three circumstances combined to make bombing the Auschwitz death machinery and the railways leading to it from Hungary critically important and militarily possible. In mid-April, the Nazis began concentrating the 760,000 Jews of Hungary for deportation to the killing center at Auschwitz. Late in April, two escapees from Auschwitz revealed the full details of the mass murder taking place there, thus making completely clear the fate awaiting the Hungarian Jews. And by May, the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force, which had been operating from southern Italy since December 1943, reached full authorized strength and started pounding Nazi industrial complexes in Central and East Central Europe. For the first time, Allied bombers had the capacity to strike Auschwitz, located in the southwestern corner of Poland. The rail lines to Auschwitz from Hungary also lay within range of these aircraft.
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