Bush: US should have bombed Auschwitz (1 Viewer)

['79 Saints]

Wasn't there talk a few years ago about building a shopping mall near Auschwitz?

Now THAT was a stupid thing to suggest...

 

[DadsDream]

We hit military-industrial targets which had associated forced labor camps and killed the prisoners when it suited our strategic goals, like knocking out the V-1 and V-2 research facilities. In the case of Peenemunde, we actually deliberately targeted the workers' barracks.

Peenemunde - 1943

The first Crossbow target hit was Peenemunde. The primary objective of the raid was to kill as many personnel involved in the V-weapons programs as possible, so the housing area was the main aim point. Two lesser objectives were to destroy as much of the V-weapons related work and documentation as possible, and to render Peenemunde useless as a research facility. On the evening of 17/18 August 1943, with the backdrop of a full moon, Bomber Command launched 596 aircraft - 324 Lancasters, 218 Halifaxes, 54 Stirlings -- which dropped nearly 1,800 tons of bombs on Peenemunde; 85 per cent of this tonnage was high-explosive.

Approximately 180 Germans were killed at Peenemunde, nearly all in the workers housing estate, and 500-600 foreigners, mostly Polish, were killed in the workers camp, where there were only flimsy wooden barracks and no proper air-raid shelters.

READ MORE
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/ops/peenemunde.htm

 

[JimEverett]

Wasn't there talk a few years ago about building a shopping mall near Auschwitz?

Now THAT was a stupid thing to suggest...

I never went to Auschwitz but I did go to a few others - Dacau and Buchenwald. It was sort of weird seeing young children eating ice cream, running around playing, eating sausages, etc. on the grounds

 

[champ76]

I never went to Auschwitz but I did go to a few others - Dacau and Buchenwald. It was sort of weird seeing young children eating ice cream, running around playing, eating sausages, etc. on the grounds

Of course that happens at a lot of battlefields, like Gettysburg, It's a reminder, I suppose, that life goes on. I thought it was sort of weird seeing loads of Japanese tourists at the Arizona memorial. I wondered what was going through their heads as they read the account of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

[RebSaint]

It's a reminder, I suppose, that life goes on.

It's also a sign that many in this country view a new Wal-Mart or Target is more important than preserving sacred ground.

 

[SoonerJim]

There was a division of labor in WW2. Poland was the USSR's territory, and we were addressing the western front. The Soviets would not have taken too kindly to our actions in their region. Bombing the camps was never a high order priority. The fact that the comment comes from BushHitler and attending reaction only serves to deepen the psychosis surrounding this President.

 

[blackadder]

There was a division of labor in WW2. Poland was the USSR's territory, and we were addressing the western front. The Soviets would not have taken too kindly to our actions in their region.

This is quite true.

I recall the professor in my "History of World War II" class at the Louisiana State Univeristy told us that there were numerous actual clashes between U.S. and Soviet forces in Eastern Europe during the war, while we were supposed to be allies with "uncle Joe."

One example he specifically recounted was that supposedly, with an eye toward the post-War world we sent a squadron of long range bombers on extended reconaissance and aerial photograpy missions in Eastern Europe, I guess to update maps, etc.

On one flight they were harassed and finally attacked by a flight of Soviet fighters. As Dr. Hilton told it, in that instance a lone U.S. bomber shot down something like four Soviet fighters and continued on it's way.

I asked the usual questions about mistaken identity etc. but I recall that he claimed that both sides identified each other and knew who and what they were shooting at. It was his take that they were trying to send the message to stay on your side of the Elbe.

 

[RJ in Lafayette]

There is a display inside the Holocaust Museum in Washington devoted to this issue.

In retrospect, we probably should have, for both humanitarian and strategic reasons. Nazi Germany was devoting inordinate resources to the extermination of Europe's Jews. Bombing Auschwitz would not have involved a great cost to us. And making Hitler expend even greater resources would have had a salutary effect on our war efforts. The benefits would have exceeded the costs.

But we didn't know in 1944 what we know now. In hindsight, the Saints in 2003 should have drafted Kevin Williams or Ty Warren rather than Jonanthon Sullivan. In hindsight, I should have voted for Gore rather than Bush in 2000. In hindsight, I should have been buying up Microsoft stock 25 years ago or at least putting my money with Warren Buffett. In hindsight, I should have taken LSU Monday night and given the points

There were pros and cons with bombing Auschwitz, which were discussed in 1944 when we elected not to do so.

However, bombing Auschwitz fits neatly into the Bush post-9.11 mindset and the rationale for invading Iraq, the indispensable nation using its military power to prevent evil in the world. A reason that many Jewish neoconservatives favored the Iraq invasion was their experience with the Holocaust and a belief that the West failed to use its military power to stop the Final Solution.

 

[ra]

Of course that happens at a lot of battlefields, like Gettysburg, It's a reminder, I suppose, that life goes on. I thought it was sort of weird seeing loads of Japanese tourists at the Arizona memorial. I wondered what was going through their heads as they read the account of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I guess you've never been to Manzanar.
That place is a ghost town with nothing but concrete foundations.
We buried that place real good.

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/projects/geoweb/participants/dutch/GEOPHOTO/SEISMOL/Manzanar.jpg

 

[champ76]

I guess you've never been to Manzanar.
That place is a ghost town with nothing but concrete foundations.
We buried that place real good.

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/projects/geoweb/participants/dutch/GEOPHOTO/SEISMOL/Manzanar.jpg

No, and I'm not quite sure I see the connection.

 

[RebSaint]

No, and I'm not quite sure I see the connection.

Manzanar was one of the many places in the United States where Japanese civilians were kept in internment camps during World War II. Definitely a disgraceful and disgusting chapter in this nation's history.

 

[blackadder]

Manzanar was one of the many places in the United States where Japanese soldiers were kept in internment camps during World War II. Definitely a disgraceful and disgusting chapter in this nation's history.

Weren't just soldiers or prisoners. It was anyone of Japanese descent, citizens included. In many cases their businesses were shut down and property confiscated once they were interned.

 

[Devildog]

Weren't just soldiers or prisoners. It was anyone of Japanese descent, citizens included. In many cases their businesses were shut down and property confiscated once they were interned.

And yet, some of the most decorated soldiers in WWII fought in Italy and were, you guessed it, Japanese. Greatest generation indeed.

 

[blackadder]

And yet, some of the most decorated soldiers in WWII fought in Italy and were, you guessed it, Japanese. Greatest generation indeed.

Absolutely true.

 

[champ76]

Manzanar was one of the many places in the United States where Japanese soldiers were kept in internment camps during World War II. Definitely a disgraceful and disgusting chapter in this nation's history.

And the point is?