On April 18, 2005 Auschwitz survivors Anna Ornstein and Werner Coppel will meet one of the American pilots, Sen. George McGovern, who would have volunteered to bomb the infamous gas chambers – had he been given the chance.  This unparalleled event will finally acknowledge those who would have been participants in bombing: the pilots who would have bombed the innocent prisoners who prayed for the bombs to fall.    

It isn’t that the question of whether the Allies should have – or could have – bombed Auschwitz has not been discussed.  It has.  Scholars have approached the issue from many available angles.  Still missing, however, is the input of those who would have been directly involved in the bombing; their voices will finally be heard on April 18. 

It’s difficult to fully appreciate the conversation between Sen. McGovern, Dr. Ornstein and Mr. Coppel without viewing the work that has come before it.  What questions have already been asked?  What answers given?  Which conclusions have been reached?  The conversation to take place on April 18 can only be fully appreciated when viewed as building on the foundation that has already been explored in the works that follow. 

The Abandonment of the Jews   By: David S. Wyman

In 1979, David Wyman initiated the debate that continues today with his article, “The Bombing of Auschwitz,” in which he made the case that the Allies had the capacity to bomb Auschwitz – and knew of the slaughter that was taking place – but failed to act.  This essay later became a chapter in Wyman’s book, The Abandonment of the Jews (New York: Pantheon, 1984), which has been called the “backdrop” to the current debate.  The Abandonment of the Jews has been designated a “landmark study” and a “tour de force that cannot fail to have an impact” on its readers.  While its focus is on historical accuracy (Irving Abella of New York University called it “objective and dispassionate” and a “model of historical writing”), Wyman’s book nevertheless forces an emotional response.

Perhaps more than any other book The Abandonment of the Jews confronts the impossible questions that arise from the Allies’ failure to act.  As a result The Abandonment of the Jews has been called an “unremitting indictment,” in which Wyman leaves no group unchallenged in the failure to adequately respond to the genocide: the media, Congress, President Roosevelt, the Jewish community, the American people, and democracies around the world.  Wyman argues that “government indifference reflected the overwhelming lack of concern of American society generally.”  Though the book has generally been reviewed positively, Henry Feingold for one finds the book “a strangely flat chronicle of insufficiency and failure.” Nevertheless, one cannot read The Abandonment of the Jews “without being moved and angered.”

The Bombing of Auschwitz   Edited by: Michael Berenbaum & Michael Neufeld

In The Bombing of Auschwitz, editors Michael Neufeld and Michael Berenbaum (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000) approach the question from a different angle.  The book is a collection of essays by writers far removed from the situation that confronts the logistical and technical question: Could the Allies have effectively bombed Auschwitz?  Neufeld and Berenbaum systematically approach the proposal by investigating several questions: Did the Allies know about the killing machine at Auschwitz?  Who knew?  At what point was it known?  Central to the editors’ study is the significance of the historical context.  For example, we must always be cautious not to judge mid-20^th century military commanders by contemporary social standards. 

At the core of these essays is a continuing debate.  Military and Holocaust scholars remain divided about the feasibility of bombing – and these divisions are clearly represented in The Bombing of Auschwitz.  As mentioned, Neufeld and Berenbaum devote the book to a technical assessment, and rely on experts to do so.  For this reason, the collection is roundly praised as “not only the best and most recent technical assessments but thoughtful reflections on how to judge the hard-pressed political leaders and generals of the time.” The only critique of the collection concerns the absence of any real discussion of the ethical and moral considerations of the issue.  Nevertheless, The Bombing of Auschwitz has been heralded as “extraordinarily well crafted” and “certainly timely.”

The Wild Blue  By: Stephen Ambrose

While the first two narratives focused on logistics, decisions made in Washington D.C., and the enduring moral questions, popular historian Stephen Ambrose presents a unique perspective in The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany (Simon & Schuster: New York, 2001).  Ambrose focuses exclusively on the young pilots who flew missions over enemy territory in World War II.  He shines the light most brightly on the American icon, George McGovern, who at the time was just one of many U.S. pilots patrolling the European skies.  The book provides a snapshot of George McGovern, the American hero, before the overbearing influence of politics shadowed his military decorations.

If anything, Ambrose fails to critically confront the difficult situation the young pilots faced: The decision not to bomb was made in Washington D.C. – without the input of the pilots carrying out the missions.  With unabashed patriotism, Ambrose promotes – justifiably perhaps – the courage, stamina, and skill these pilots displayed, but does so at the expense of important questions: How effective were World War II bombers?  Were civilian populations targeted?  And most important to our current purpose, what was known of Auschwitz?  Did the pilots ever discuss the camp?

The Wild Blue provides a welcome insight to “the men and boys who flew the B-24s over Germany” as well as Senator McGovern.  Though Stephen Ambrose presents the pilots’ viewpoints he never asks the questions that Wyman confronts in The Abandonment of the Jews nor provokes the debate undertaken in The Bombing of the Jews.  As such, the book seems to lack the depth that should underscore the subject, and Ambrose has been criticized for such: “this book has little to do with a serious and scholarly treatment of the air war in World War II.  Ambrose’s approach is totally unilateral, patriotic, piecemeal, personal, and thus narrow in scope.”  Nevertheless, the glimpse Ambrose provides – narrow as it may be –compliments the other texts by providing an important perspective: That of the men and boys who could have bombed Auschwitz. 

My Mother's Eyes By: Anna Ornstein

A final perspective is that of the prisoners in Auschwitz.  For this we turn to Anna Ornstein.  Currently a professor of psychology at Harvard University, Anna was 17 years old when she and her family were imprisoned at Auschwitz.  Decades later, Dr. Ornstein recorded her memories in a collection of short stories called, My Mother’s Eyes: Holocaust Memories of a Young Girl (Emmis Books: Cincinnati, 2004), which documents her time before, during, and after Auschwitz.  Dr. Ornstein’s is the only Cincinnatian to print memoirs of Auschwitz, and the Holocaust in general.

Promoted as “tender, terrifying, and triumphant” My Mother’s Eyes presents the everyday experiences of Auschwitz: hunger pains that made sleep difficult and the smell of sweet smoke that hovered over the camp.  Two of Ornstein’s narratives are especially personal.  In “The Core of an Apple,” Anna describes receiving an apple core her mother found on the ground as an 18^th birthday present.  To this day, Anna still eats every piece of an apple, including the core.  In a later story, “The Tattoo,” Anna recalls inspecting every tattoo line to find the girl who tattooed the neatest numbers on the underside of her forearm; even at Auschwitz Anna remained a teenage girl concerned about her appearance. Anna’s compelled Jean M. Peck, editor of the University of Cincinnati’s magazine to write a piece on Dr. Ornstein.  Five years after the first magazine article appeared, Peck published the story of Anna Ornstein, her husband Paul and two other Holocaust in At the Fire’s Center: A Story of Love and Holocaust Survival (University of Illinois Press: Chicago, 1998). 

Ornstein offers an image of life inside Auschwitz, and in doing so provides an integral perspective.  Yet much like Ambrose, Ornstein’s purpose is not to explore the ethical questions that surround the debate.  And of course, these are important questions for her to consider, for it was to be her life – and her family – that would have been sacrificed to disable the killing machine.   

Between My Mother’s Eyes and The Wild Blue we have a picture of the people who would have been directly affected by the bombing of Auschwitz.  In The Bombing of Auschwitz the experts decide that the U.S. could have bombed Auschwitz.  And in The Abandonment of the Jews David Wyman argues that the U.S. should have bombed Auschwitz. Yet never before have such questions been asked of the prisoners and the pilots.  On April 18 these questions will finally be asked.