The Liberation of Auschwitz and its Legacy: The Failure of the Allies to Act
Prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp after their liberation by the Red Army, January 1945
By Daniel Grossman, Vice President of Jewish Society
78 years ago today, Auschwitz, the most notorious of all of the Nazi death camps, was liberated. The symbolic nature of this moment meant that today was chosen to serve as the International Holocaust Memorial Day, therefore being an opportunity to reflect on the horrors of the Holocaust and what lessons can be learnt from it.
By the time the Red Army liberated Auschwitz, it was estimated that around 1.1 million people had been murdered at the camp. Consequently, it is problematic that the Allied powers are sometimes glorified on Holocaust Memorial Day and in the wider discourse regarding the Holocaust because their inaction prior to liberation meant that many who could have been saved perished at the hands of Nazi evil.
In 2018, UCL released a report about the understanding of students on the Holocaust, and strikingly 34% believed Britain entered the war because of the Holocaust, 18% thought that it had plans to save the Jews, and 24% thought it was not aware of the mass killing until the end of the war. These misconceptions were starkly wrong, showing how British history curricula and public discourse gloss over the uncomfortable aspects of British inaction, resulting in a skewed understanding of history.
A particularly pertinent event was the Évian Conference of July 1938, where Roosevelt invited delegates from 32 countries to discuss the increasingly concerning refugee problem surrounding German and Austrian Jews. According to Yad Vashem, (the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre), “During the conference, it became painfully obvious that no country was willing to volunteer anything.” Even the Dominican Republic, the only country at the conference willing to take in Jews, demanded large payments in return. The Évian Conference was thus a moment where the global community could have acted quickly to ensure the safety of Jews in Europe, yet instead demonstrated their inaction.
The Kindertransport, where 10,000 child refugees were sent to the UK to save them from Nazi persecution, is often associated with the British government’s perceived generosity to the Jews of Europe. However, it has again been misremembered in the minds of many. Historian Tony Kushner argues that “the only role of the British government was in announcing the scheme and in setting the legal parameters for the entry of the children.” Also, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, “Strict conditions were placed upon the entry of the children.” Moreover, “Jewish and non-Jewish organisations funded the operation and had to ensure that none of the refugees would become a financial burden on the public.” Whilst the Kindertransport was ultimately an incredible achievement, it relied on organisations and individuals, with the British government playing a restrictive role.
As early as 1942, the Allies had been made aware of the Nazi operation to murder the Jews of Europe. For example, The Polish Government in Exile sent ‘Raczyński’s Note’ to allied foreign ministers, which according to the World Jewish Congress, detailed how the Nazis were systematically killing Jews with the aim of mass extermination, with the note also calling on the Allies to act. This triggered the Joint Declaration by Members of the United Nations in December 1942 and condemned “Hitler’s oft-repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe.” Based on this knowledge, the Allies could have attempted to act at least two years before liberation.
On the topic of Auschwitz itself, it can be argued that the Allies could have bombed the train tracks or even the gas chambers in order to prevent more people from being murdered by the Nazis. Recently this was discussed by Jonathan Freedland on ‘The Rest is History’ Podcast, where he discusses the Allied response to the Vrba-Wetzler report of 1944, which is a detailed account of the horrors of Auschwitz from two Jews who managed to escape. Attached to the report was a demand by Chaim Weizmann and other Jewish leaders to bomb the railway tracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau. However, as a result of bureaucratic issues, the lack of willingness to divert from the war effort and even due to antisemitism in Whitehall and Washington, this didn’t occur. The Allied bombing of the small subcamp Auschwitz III thus showed it was possible to take this action.
The phrase ‘Never Again’ is often used on Holocaust Memorial Day, but for it to have any meaning, the same mistakes of the past must not be repeated. Elie Wiesel famously wrote that “’Never Again’ becomes more than a slogan: It’s a prayer, a promise, a vow.” The international community must therefore look to the Holocaust, and other genocides and learn that decisive action must be taken to vow that such an event is prevented before it is too late.
Websites used:
https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/auschwitz-and-shoah/the-number-of-victims/
https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206305.pdf
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/allied-declaration-on-persecution-of-the-jews
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/never-again-from-a-holocaust-phrase-to-a-universal-phrase-544666