1944

by Jay Winik

  “so terrible that it is hard”: Quotes and emerging details of the death camps are taken from Bird, Chairman, 214–16. See also Neufeld and Berenbaum, The Bombing of Auschwitz, 274–79, for reproductions of the relevant memos.

  Eden sat down with Churchill: See Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, 276–77; Bird, Chairman, 217. Churchill also roared that he was entirely in accord with making “the biggest outcry possible,” Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, 276. There is no doubt that Churchill’s eloquence was unequivocal and heartfelt.

  he had received harsh criticism: For the pressure on the regime in Hungary, see Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, 266, on which I heavily leaned; on the decision to cease the deportations, see, 292, 302. Significantly, the bombing of Budapest also hit government buildings and private homes, further increasing the pressure.

  death trains still . . . rolled in: Bird, Chairman, 217.

  Raoul Wallenberg: See Wyman, Abandonment, 240–43. Rosen, Saving the Jews, 464–65, presents a more skeptical view, referring to Wallenberg as an American agent.

  yellow stars to the clothes: Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, 293.

  “is out of our power”: For these quotes, Bird, Chairman, 214.

  In early August: See the extraordinary exchange of letters between McCloy and Kubowitzki, August 9 and August 14, reproduced in Neufeld and Berenbaum, The Bombing of Auschwitz, 273–74.

  “It will be difficult”: Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, 311.

  “It was a sort of operation”: New York Times, October 29, 1943, 7. Advocates of bombing Auschwitz were in general aware of this remarkable operation.

  In tiny Albania: New York Times, November 19, 2013, A9.

  “How beautiful was it”: Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, 315.

  assault against the Nazis in Warsaw: I extensively used Kershaw, Hitler, 868; online sources, such as www.warsawuprising.com; Gordon Corrigan, The Second World War: A Military History (Thomas Dunne, 2011), 476–77; Neil Orpen, Airlift to Warsaw: The Rising of 1944 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1984). On the Warsaw ghetto itself, read the rare wartime firsthand account by an escapee, Tosha Bialer, “Behind the Wall (Life—and Death—in Warsaw’s Ghetto),” Collier’s, February 20, 1943, 17–18, 66–67; February 27, 1943, 29–33. This powerful story reached millions of Americans only two months after the Allies confirmed a mass killing of European Jews; it included haunting photographs of children with legs like toothpicks sleeping in abandoned newsstands. See also Robert H. Abzug, America Views the Holocaust 1933–1945: A Documentary History (St. Martin’s, 1999). For Slessor’s account of the Warsaw uprising, see The Central Blue: The Autobiography of Sir John Slessor, RAF (Praeger, 1957), 611–21.

  begged for resupply: For the complex politics of resupplying the Polish Resistance, and quotes (“Do you want me”), I draw on Slessor, Central Blue, 620; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 534–37; Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 517–21; and Smith, FDR, 630–31.

  willing to divert considerable airpower: See Wyman, Abandonment, 306; Slessor, Central Blue, 620.

  “Despite the tangible cost”: Wyman, Abandonment, 306.

  The war would . . . be won: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 520; American Heritage, New History of World War II (Ambrose), 488–503; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 553.

  he contacted McCloy: See the exchange of memos between John Pehle and John J. McCloy, November 8 and November 18, 1944, in Neufeld and Berenbaum, The Bombing of Auschwitz, 278–80. The contemporary literature about bombing Auschwitz is extensive, highly detailed, at times confusing or misleading, and often fascinating. The leading proponent of bombing is Wyman, in Abandonment; two of his principal critics are James H. Kitchens III and Richard H. Levy, who marshal facts about the availability and accuracy of bombers: German defenses; and the distance and placement of targets. Their central point is that it was not militarily practicable or feasible to bomb Auschwitz. However, Stuart G. Erdheim all but demolishes their arguments in a highly detailed rebuttal. Erdheim methodically points out that the failure to bomb resulted not from operational impracticability but from the Allies’ mind-set and Roosevelt’s policies. He points out that the logic of the critics would have led to aborting countless other World War II bombing missions. In his rigorous argument, Erdheim takes into account Luftwaffe fighter defenses, the status of German air defenses, the accuracy of bombing, weather, and other factors. There is little doubt, from what he writes, that P38 or Mosquito fighters using low-level precision bombing could have attacked Auschwitz. So could heavy bombers, though the casualties would have been greater. Erdheim’s reasoning is buttressed independently by the Air Force historian Rondall R. Rice, who points out that the Fifteenth Air Force, with B17s and B24s, had both the technical means and a window of opportunity to bomb Auschwitz with a “high probability of success”; the only reason it did not do so was a lack of political will. The distinguished military historian Williamson Murray insists that the military was preoccupied with the invasion of France and was working around the clock; but another military historian, Richard G. Davis, takes issue with that. Richard Breitman, for one, points out that on the basis of intelligence reports received in 1943, a raid could have been planned for early 1944, if there were the political will. There is also a hypothetical scenario: if Roosevelt had ordered an attack at the time of his March 24, 1944, speech, and it took place just as the Hungarian deportations were about to commence, the Nazis’ killing process would have been severely impeded. It took eight months to build the complex industrial killing machines when Nazi Germany was at the zenith of its strength; in the spring of 1944, for a depleted Third Reich, rebuilding would have been very difficult. As to the contention that bombing Auschwitz is an ahistorical debate, reflecting our values in the twenty-first century, Benjamin Akzin’s memorandum completely undermines that claim. Levy suggests that the Jewish community was considerably divided; by way of comparison, so was the Union during the Civil War, but this didn’t stop Abraham Lincoln from issuing the Emancipation Proclamation or from forming Negro fighting units in the army. For the back-and-forth in these articles and more, see the individual essays in Neufeld and Berenbaum, The Bombing of Auschwitz. For discussions of accuracy and comparisons between the American and British bombing forces, see W. Hays Parks, “ ‘Precision’ and ‘Area’ Bombing: Who Did Which, and When?” Journal of Strategic Studies 18 (March 1995): 145–74. For general discussions, see Richard G. Davis, “German Railyards and Cities: US Bombing Policy, 1944–1945,” Air Power History 42 (Summer 1995): 47–63; and Tammy Davis Biddle, “Air War,” in Michael Howard, George Andreopoulos, and Mark Shulman, eds., The Laws of War (Yale University Press, 1994). On the degradation of Germany from the air assault by the Allies, see especially Alfred C. Mierzejewski, The Collapse of the German War Economy, 1944–1945 (University of North Carolina Press, 1988). Around this time the Germans were seeking to divert the Allies with their “blood for goods” proposal: See Yehuda Bauer, Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945 (Yale University Press, 1944); and Richard Breitman and Shlomo Aronson, “The End of the ‘Final Solution’? Nazi Plans to Ransom Jews in 1944,” Central European History 25 (1992); 177–203. For general discussions, see Verne Newton, ed., FDR and the Holocaust (St. Martin’s, 1996).

  “I am certain that”: Rosen, Saving the Jews, 398.

  history records a question mark: See the discussion in Brands, Traitor to His Class, 570. Brands sees the issue very differently from Goodwin in No Ordinary Time or Smith in FDR, for example. Both Goodwin and Smith see Roosevelt’s failure to take stronger action as a considerable moral and political lapse, even a stain, on his otherwise stellar leadership during World War II. In hindsight, although Roosevelt left few fingerprints on the issue, there are subtle clues that he realized history might not judge inaction regarding the Jews very well. If one reads Henry Morgenthau’s diary entry of December 3, 1942, one sees Roosevelt grasping for some solution that would at least save the liv
ing Jews who had escaped Hitler’s clutches by providing them with a sustainable homeland in Palestine. He had ideas for Jews outside Europe as well as those in “the heart of Europe.” The president told Morgenthau, “I am studying many other places in the world where the refugees from Europe can be moved.” Morgenthau was surprised “that the president was studying this thing with so much interest and had gone as far as he had in making up his mind on what he wants to do. It was most encouraging to me and most heartening.” See “Concerning Placing Jewish Refugees,” Morgenthau Diary, December 3, 1942, in America and the Holocaust: Responsibility for America’s Failure, Volume 13, David S. Wyman, ed. (Garland, 1991), 8–9. See also Abzug, America Views the Holocaust, 134–35.

  “spark of courageous leadership”: See Wyman, Abandonment, 313. For “between knowing and not knowing,” it comes from the Protestant theologian W. A. Visser’t Hooft. I found this beautiful quote in Bird, Chairman, 222.

  CHAPTER 14

  “There is no news”: David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (Random House, 1999), 255.

  “our present chaos”: Ibid.; and James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, 1940–1945 (Harcourt, 1970), 499–501.

  “a reputation for”: MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 502–3; Brinkley, Washington, 260.

  “I have got something else”: See Brinkley, Washington, 257–58. We can still see how Roosevelt came alive in the campaign. He loved nothing more than to be coy and then surprise his opponents.

  finding a new vice presidential candidate: Ibid., 259–60; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 504–5. I have drawn on both for these two paragraphs.

  “I shall not campaign”: See MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 506: Roosevelt’s acceptance speech is also online.

  “What is the job”: MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 507. For more on Lincoln’s second inaugural address, which remains the finest presidential speech in history, see Jay Winik, April 1865 (HarperCollins, 2001), 34–36.

  “His face took on”: See Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time (Simon & Schuster, 1994), 529. It is interesting that even now Roosevelt was bubbling with ideas, such as irrigating the Sahara Desert. At his core, even while he was a realist, he always remained a palpable idealist.

  The photo the AP editor picked: See Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 529–30; Samuel Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt (Harper, 1952), 453; Brinkley, Washington; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 508. Dick Strobel, who took the photo, said “all hell broke loose” when it appeared; not unlike presidential staffers today, Roosevelt’s people were furious with the AP. For these delicious details, Goodwin interviewed Strobel. According to MacGregor Burns, the intense concern about Roosevelt’s health gave rise to a rumor that he had had a secret operation at Hobcaw Barony in May.

  “The man who”: See Kershaw, Hitler, 816–841, for a detailed account of the assassination attempt; quotation, 818.

  “Hello, Doug”: Jean Edward Smith, FDR (Random House, 2008), 620; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 530–31.

  including a military hospital: On the extraordinary scene in the military hospital, where Roosevelt for the first time let his guard down, see Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt, 458; Smith, FDR, 621; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 532.

  “He is just a shell”: Smith, FDR, 622; William Manchester, American Caesar, 1880–1964 (Little, Brown, 1978), 369. MacArthur was of course prescient; Of note, he did think Roosevelt was a man of “great vision” once he had all the facts.

  “tepid and halting”: MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 507–9; on Bruenn’s observations, see Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 537. By way of comparison, during the Civil War, Robert E. Lee suffered from angina, which prematurely aged him. For the speech in Bremerton, see Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt, 461–62. For more on FDR’s collapse, see Elliott Roosevelt and James Brough, A Rendezvous with Destiny: The Roosevelts of the White House (Putnam, 1975), 378.

  “It looks like”: See Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt, 462; Smith, FDR, 623.

  Five days after: See William Hassett, Off the Record with FDR (Rutgers University Press, 1958), 266–67.

  “For months, he had”: Brinkley, Washington, 262. This blunt observation was typical of Brinkley, who would later become the dean of the Washington press corps.

  estate in northern New Jersey: Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 541–42. This time Roosevelt managed to see Lucy again at Tranquility Farms. During this period, Churchill was recovering from a bout with pneumonia.

  Quebec summit: For the following paragraphs, I drew heavily on Lord Moran, Churchill: Taken from the Diaries of Lord Moran—The Struggle for Survival, 1940–1965 (Houghton Mifflin, 1966), 192; Smith, FDR, 623–24; Cordell Hull, The Memoirs of Cordell Hull, 2 vols. (Macmillan, 1948), 1613–21; MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 519–21. Anthony Eden and Churchill exchanged sharp words about the Morgenthau plan, with Eden insisting that Churchill could not support it; in the end, Eden had his way.

  “The German people”: See Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945 (Oxford University Press, 1979), 473.

  “tired old men”: See Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 546–47. This phrase is actually Goodwin’s, indicating the spirit of Dewey’s campaign. Rosenman makes the point that Roosevelt had to learn to walk with his braces all over again. See Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt, 474.

  The new Statler Hotel: Brinkley, Washington, 253–54.

  “He was literally trying”: Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt, 474.

  The room was packed: Ibid., 478; for these two paragraphs, and quotes, I drew extensively on Rosenman, “The old master”: Time, October 2, 1944, 21. See also MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 521–23; Goodwin, No Ordinary Time 547–48. On the joke about Fala, see Franklin D. Roosevelt, Public Papers and Addresses, 1944–45 (Harper, 1950), 290, also online.

  surrendered in Warsaw: See especially Kershaw, Hitler, 868. In an act of continuing spite, Hitler turned the city over, not to the Wehrmacht, but instead to Himmler and the SS for destruction.

  pulled into New York: For Roosevelt’s campaign in New York, I rely on the excellent accounts in Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 549–51; and MacGregor Burns, Soldier of Freedom, 525–26—the latter calls the day in New York a double triumph. For the apartment, Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember (Harper, 1949), 337. For “Peace, like war,” Franklin D. Roosevelt, Public Papers, 1944, 350.

  “The President is in the pink”: Hassett, Off the Record, 282. Hassett could not have been more wrong; Roosevelt would not bury his detractors. For the following three paragraphs, and election results, see Harold Gosnell, Champion Campaigner: Franklin D. Roosevelt, (Macmillan, 1952), 211–12.

  “son-of-a-bitch”: (Roosevelt’s quip) Hassett, Off the Record, 294.

  had a plan: On Hitler and his desperate efforts at this time, Gordon Corrigan, The Second World War: A Military History (Thomas Dunne, 2011), 457, 485–88.

  “not clinically insane”: For Hitler’s diminishing health and his phobias, ibid., 488; and Kershaw, Hitler, 869–71. The phrase “gullible population” is Kershaw’s. Kershaw does note that aided and abetted by his quack doctor, Theodore Morrell, Hitler almost certainly did suffer from psychiatric and personality disorders.

  so that the Sonderkommando: For handy reference, see Sybelle Steinbacher, Auschwitz: A History (Harper Perennial, 2005), 96–104, 119–21; Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies (Holt, 1981), 324–26 naming other places.

  had liberated Majdanek: See Richard Lauterbach, “Murder, Inc.,” Time, September 11, 1944, 36. The Soviets saw the showers, the gas chambers, the double rows of electrically charged barbed wire, the “road of death,” the room full of passports and documents—and the “sea of shoes, 820,000 pairs, piled, like pieces of coal,” of which the correspondent wrote movingly: “Majdenek suddenly became real. It was no longer a half remembered sequence from an old movie or a clipping from Pravda or chapters from a book by a German refugee.” He also wrote of German food produ
ction: “Kill people; fertilize cabbages,” after cutting bodies up scientifically before sliding them into coke-fed ovens. Remarkably, Christian Century wrote about this account as little more than exaggerations and fabrications: see “Biggest Atrocity Story Breaks in Poland,” Christian Century, September 13, 1944, 1045. See also Robert H. Abzug, America Views the Holocaust (St. Martin’s, 1999), 179–82.

  “Harvest Festival”: Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust (Holt, 1985), 627–32; on Majdanek, its liberation, and the Allies’ advance, 706–11. Gilbert makes the point that “liberation and enslavement were taking place” at the same time on July 18, 1944. Photographs were published of charred human remains, arousing widespread horror. One SS brigadier fumed about the “slovenly . . . rabble” who did not “erase the traces” in time. See also accounts in Steinbacher, Auschwitz, 121; Gilbert, The Holocaust, 706–30; and Corrigan, Second World War, 474.

  Battle of the Bulge: See Corrigan, Second World War, 535–38; Martin Gilbert, The Second World War: A Complete History (Owl, 1989), 626. For details, see the masterly account by Pulitzer Prize–winner Rick Atkinson, The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944–1945 (Holt, 2013), 412–92. For the battle, the demand for surrender, and my casualty figures, I have also drawn on Ambrose, American Heritage, 502–3.

  “off our neighbors’ backs”: Elie Wiesel, Night (Hill and Wang, 2006), 96, 101–2; Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, 333–38; Steinbacher, Auschwitz, 127–35; and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Auschwitz,” for the opening of Auschwitz. The reader may also go to YouTube for uncensored clips of the liberation of the camp and its aftermath. A related YouTube video of the liberation of Ohrdruf is particularly powerful, as local Nazis are forced to watch the results of their handiwork in the death camp itself; Gilbert has an account of this in The Holocaust, 790.