Auschwitz and the Allies: Amazon.ca: Martin Gilbert: Books

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelief, Sep 26 2001

By

A. R. Paterson (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

Scepticism is a powerful force. Do not be sceptical of this book: read it. We think we know the story of the holocaust: it is a harrowing one, evil leaders duping or swaying a more or less complicit German population into killing Jews, Poles, homosexuals, the disabled in darkest Eastern Europe; the end of the war revealing an unimaginable horror. Unbelievable. Well, yes, actually. This book tells the story of those who died trying to tell the world of these 'unbelievable' events; smuggling themselves, their stories, their papers, their photographs, their evidence to neutral Switzerland and thence to the Allies. They were met with unbelief. This is believable, even understandable. The trickle of information became a torrent. Still unbelief. Finally, and this is the most unbelievable part, incontrovertable truth, testimonies, high altitude photographs are met with... no massive response. No change in war strategy. No attempt to save the thousands the Allies knew were dying every day. Only slow-thighed, stone-walling bureaucracy: timid circular memos, double-thinking, a need to know basis, no rocking of boats, a belief in desks, annotations, hierarchy, in process not in human life. Yes, they knew. No, they did nothing. Yes they kept this a secret. This is no conspiracy theory. The evidence is unbelievable. But it is incontrovertable. Undeniable, undenied, even. Churchill, Roosevelt, Washington, Whitehall, all the echelons of government, our noble western democracies, did nothing, nothing, to stop the largest act of deliberate, systematic murder the world has seen.

Read this back. That makes them complicit. That makes us complicit.

The final unbelievability: that this painstaking, unassuming, remorseless, tragic book is not more widely known. That its conclusions are not taught in schools. That it could fall out of print. (Out of print!). Clearly there are some things we would rather not know. About ourselves. I first read this when fourteen; the memory remained with me; I am reading it again now, and it has no less effect. It is unbelievable. Still.

If you consider yourself a member of western civilization, notwithstanding Ghandi's sceptical view of this paradox, you must read this book. Just for a moment put to one side scepticism, healthy or otherwise, and believe it. Believe the story of what happened and what failed to happen, or you are as culpable as those that did not, would not believe during the war. You are as culpable as those that knew, that believed, and did precisely nothing. Now, we can do little; the least is to find out, to read this book. Then you can decide what to believe.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Searing Indictment of Deceit and Wilfull Ingnorance, Mar 16 2000

By A Customer

This book is in many ways two books -the first being how the British and Americans were duped into not realizing the true nature of "the deportations to the East." The second was their lack of real interest in saving what could have been saved of the Jews. When one reads the memorandums by such people as John J. McCloy and various faceless British Foreign Office officals you get the feeling that their greatest fear was what were they going to do "with all these Jews" who could be rescued. The old canard oft stated by Roosevelt apologists such as William D. Rubinstein who wrote "The Myth of Rescue" that the best way to help the Jews was to win the war as quickly as possible is proven false - Jews could be rescued if there was a will to rescue. them. The most heartrending section of all - dealing with the destruction of the Jews of Hungary is when you read all the excuses given for not bombing the gaschambers at Auschwitz is when you see the actual aerial photographs of Birkenau and people being led to the gas chambers. The allies always claimed that it was logistically impossible to bomb Auschwitz-Birkenau and we now kmow that was a damnable lie. Also the real heroes we learn are of all people - Treasury Department Officials and two escaped Auschwitz prisoners who brought to the world the horrors of Auschwitz and fought the crypt Anti-Semites who were not doing all they could for rescue.

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars what a book, July 29 1999

By A Customer

in this book � lived the same facts the people have lived 50 years ago.it is a great fun to read this book.once you start to read you won't put it away

Auschwitz and the Allies [Hardcover]

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