Auschwitz Bombing

David Wyman asks "How could it be that the governments of the two great Western democracies knew that a place existed where 2,000 helpless human beings could be killed every 30 minutes, knew that such killings actually did occur over and over again, and yet did not feel driven to search for some way to wipe such a scourge from the earth?" In 2008, President George W. Bush agreed that Auschwitz should have been bombed.

By the time which the bombing should have taken place, four Jews had already escaped from the camp. They wrote a report titled "The Auschwitz Protocol" which revealed the techniques utilized by the guards at Auschwitz to dehumanize the prisoners held there. In the beginning of the report, they speak of their disinfection and how each man received a number, stating at 28,600. Auschwitz was defined as a concentration camp for political prisoners under "protective custody".

By the end of the war, the knowledge of these camps (which was now clearly available) was being destroyed. American bombers also helped destroy the camps, however Auschwitz was never bombed.

SOURCES

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/auschproto.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4175045.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_bombing_debate

"We were American. We didn't go to church bazaars or Armenian gatherings. We didn't talk about Armenia. I couldn't even speak the language." (41)

These were a few particular sentences that particularly struck a chord with me.
I can relate to Peter's situation, growing up in America with two parents from a foreign country. My parents grew up in Indonesia, and came to America when they were young to study in college. I was born in California, but went to live for a year in Jakarta, Indonesia when I was a couple years old. But the only things I remember are being excited because I thought I could see fish swimming in my room when our house flooded, and sliding down the winding staircase railing in my grandparents' house. We came back when the year was up, and I've lived here ever since. Like the Balakians we don't talk about Indonesia or go to Indonesian gatherings (though we do eat a lot of Indonesian food). And except for the basics--I'm hungry, I'm tired, Hello, thank you--I don't speak Bahasa (the national language of Indonesia), even though my parents are fluent. Like Mr. and Mrs. Balakian they converse in Bahasa when they don't want people to understand them. My family eats "American" food and does "American" things, but when people ask, I answer that I am from Indonesia. Or maybe I don't want to give a straight answer and I'll say "I'm from America." But then they will ask "No, I mean, where are you really from?" And I will get upset, because to them, I am not really American. Sometimes I feel like I am in a game of tug-of-war, America vs. Indonesia, and I am the rope. I wonder, as Peter says, "Weren't we Americans?" (52) To answer his question, if you want to be technical, the only real Americans are the Native Americans. But the stereotypical 1950s (when Peter is growing up) American housewife is Caucasian. But America is supposed to be all about "land of the free, home of the brave". So I figure that as long as you are free and brave and live in the USA, aren't you American?