“The Americans and England share in the guilt along with Hitler because they had the ability to bomb the railways leading to Auschwitz or the gas chambers.”
That sharp rebuke was delivered by the Klausenberger Rebbe directly to General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1945, according to the new Israeli documentary film, “Astir Panai.”
The Rebbe, his wife, and nine of their 11 children were deported to Auschwitz in 1944. Various accounts describe him as often going hungry because of his refusal to eat non-kosher food in the camp. He was transferred to a slave labor brigade in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, and then survived several death marches to sub-camps of Dachau before the Allies liberated the region at the end of April 1945.
The Rebbe ended up in Feldafing, a Displaced Persons camp established by the American occupation forces near Munich. The Rebbetzin and ten of their children had been murdered months earlier by the Nazis. Unknown to the Rebbe, their eldest son survived the Holocaust but died soon afterwards, in another DP camp nearby.
On Yom Kippur, in 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe—and subsequently President of the United States—paid a visit to Feldafing. In the documentary, Reb Moshe Reich describes what happened that day, based on what he heard from his father-in-law, Reb Yaakov Yitzchak (Horowitz) Barminka, a Sanz-Klausenberger chasid who was with the Rebbe both in Auschwitz and in Feldafing.
The DPs were deeply divided as to who should have the honor of greeting General Eisenhower and speaking at the welcoming ceremony, according to Reich. “The Communists said they were entitled to the honor, because they [the Soviets] had liberated Auschwitz,” he recalled. “The Zionists said that they should have the honor, since they were building a state.” As a compromise, “they went to the Rebbe and said that he, as a holy man, should be the one to greet [Eisenhower]. But they said one thing to him—that he shouldn’t speak as if he were giving a sermon, and he shouldn’t recite the whole story of the Holocaust, but rather he should focus on revival.”
“A million Jews could have been saved… If the Americans had intervened just a little bit earlier, it wouldn’t have happened.”
In the film, Reich continues: “The Rebbe said nothing in response. Eisenhower arrived. As the Rebbe went to go up to the podium, he asked for a talis and he put it on. It was too late for anyone to do anything about that, because Eisenhower had already arrived. The Rebbe proceeded to speak about all the events of the Holocaust. The Rebbe said, ‘The Americans and England share in the guilt along with Hitler, because the Americans knew, for at least several years [what was happening in the death camps]. And they had the ability to bomb the railway lines [leading to Auschwitz] and they could have bombed the places [where Jews were being murdered]. A million Jews could have been saved—[including] all the Jews of Hungary. If the Americans had intervened just a little bit earlier, it wouldn’t have happened.”
The Rebbe spoke in Yiddish. A simultaneous translation into English was provided to General Eisenhower by Lieutenant Meyer Birnbaum, a young Orthodox Jewish soldier from Brooklyn who had been assigned to the American forces governing the DP camps. “Lieutenant Birnbaum told me that Eisenhower had tears in his eyes when the Rebbe finished,” Moshe Reich told Ami in an exclusive interview.
“At the time, the Rebbe didn’t know the details about the requests that had been made to the Allies to bomb Auschwitz,” Reich noted to Ami. “He spoke in general about the obvious fact that they were bombing in the area and could have hit Auschwitz. But after the war, when the Rebbe remarried, he became close to Rav Michoel Dov Ber Weissmandl, who in fact made the shidduch, and both of them were now sons-in-law of Rav Shmuel David Ungar. Rav Weissmandl then told the Rebbe about the efforts to get the Americans to bomb Auschwitz, and the Rebbe mentioned the issue a number of times over the years to his chasidim.”
Rav Weissmandl was part of a group of rescue activists in Czechoslovakia and Hungary who, in 1944, received detailed maps of Auschwitz from two escapees. The rabbi then sent numerous messages to Jewish leaders abroad and Allied diplomats, urging the bombing of the railway lines leading to Auschwitz, as well as the gas chambers and crematoria. His pleas were sent to senior Roosevelt administration officials, but they were rejected.
General Eisenhower asked the Rebbe afterwards if there was anything in particular he needed. He had one request.
According to Reich, General Eisenhower asked the Rebbe afterwards if there was anything in particular he needed. “The Rebbe could have requested a visa to America, or all sorts of other things from him,” Reich said. “He had one request—Sukkot was coming in four days, and they didn’t have the arbaah minim (the four species). Eisenhower sent the arbaah minim for the Rebbe, and they arrived just before Yom Tov began.”
The website of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum describes General Eisenhower’s visit to Feldafing, but does not report what the Rebbe said. Yad Vashem’s website quotes excerpts from what it calls “the Rebbe’s sermon on Yom Kippur,” although it is not clear if the words it quotes came from the Rebbe’s address to Eisenhower, or from another drashah he gave on Yom Kippur. In any event, Yad Vashem likewise makes no mention of the Rebbe’s remarks about bombing.
The release of “Astir Panai” coincides with a new controversy over a staff historian at the US Holocaust Museum, who has suggested that the Roosevelt administration had good reason to refuse to bomb Auschwitz.
The historian, Dr. Rebecca Erbelding, told the Times of Israel on April 15: “I’m extremely cautious about saying that bombing the gas chambers would have saved a lot of lives… [Bombing] would have killed a lot of people. There were about 100,000 people in Auschwitz [in 1944]. And so if the [US] had carpet-bombed the camp, most of the camp would have died.”
Erbelding set up a straw man. In fact, a number of Jewish organizations urged the US government to bomb Auschwitz in 1944, and asked not for “carpet bombing,” but for precision strikes either on the gas chambers and crematoria, or on the railroad lines over which hundreds of thousands of Jews were deported to their deaths.
The Allies carried out a number of successful precision bombing raids in World War II, including an attack on a rocket factory in the Buchenwald concentration camp. The planes hit the factory, but avoided striking the prisoners’ barracks. In another famous precision raid, British planes swooped low over a German prison in Amiens, France, and bombed the guard tower and outer walls, so that hundreds of prisoners could escape.
Erbelding is the one of the curators of a controversial exhibit opening this week at the US Holocaust Museum, titled “American Responses to the Holocaust.” It presents a revisionist view of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s response to the Nazi genocide, claiming there was very little the Roosevelt administration could have done to rescue Jews.
But historians who have studied the question of bombing the camps or railways have pointed out that American planes flew over Auschwitz on a number of occasions in the summer and fall of 1944, when they were bombing German oil factories that were less than five miles from the gas chambers. Therefore, it would have been entirely feasible for them to strike the gas chambers or the railways. Since 12,000 Jews were being gassed daily, even a brief disruption of the mass-murder process would have saved many lives.
It seems the Klausenberger Rebbe agreed.
This article is reprinted with permission from Ami magazine.
(17) Anonymous, August 20, 2019 1:14 AM
Bombing the concentration camps
My father was a navigator and bombardier during World War Two. He flew bombing missions in the areas of the camps. He saw the camps and the railroad tracks. He was of the opinion that the camps and the tracks could easily have been bombed.
(16) Sheldon Steinlauf, July 15, 2019 8:09 AM
No Whitewasj of FDR
It was common knowledge after the war that FDR hadthe final word about preventing bombing runs over the death camps along with the railroad tracks leading thereto. FDR had no love for the Jews.
(15) Martin Heinfling, June 11, 2018 5:53 AM
U.S. refusal to bomb death camp
The person who ordered the allied military not to bomb Auschwitz was none other than John J. McCloy (Standard Oil, Rockefeller, Chase Bank, Ford, and more) wanted to prevent damage to Auschwitz III (aka Buna, I.G. Farben's factory developing synthetic rubber and fuel)
Edwin B Zaslow, July 2, 2020 2:29 PM
McCloy's Authority
McCloy was Assistant Secretary of War. He had no authority to direct the Army Air Corps in its choice of targets. He was strictly middle management, who took orders from above. FDR was the one who could have directed the bombing of rail line and/or the crematoria, but in had no interest in doing so.
(14) Anonymous, May 11, 2018 2:44 AM
How Much Did The Zionists Do To Save Jews In The Holocaust?
We all know that most non-Jews hate Jews deep down....however, what about the secular Jews in E"Y who call themselves Zionists? How many Jews did THEY save when the holocaust was going on? Read "Perfidy" from Ben Hecht, "The Unheeded Cry" from Rav Michoel Ber Weissmandel ZT"L, Rav Avigdor Miller Z"L, multiple articles etc, where you will find out about the role of the Hagana in the second world war, that they sunk and returned ships with Religious Jews and saved only Jews who were secular and would serve for the Zionist cause.
For example, see this article:
http://www.vosizneias.com/25272/2009/01/07/new-york-second-edition-of-min-hameitzar-by-rav-weissmandel-after-50-years-new-documents-zionism-did-little-to-help-jews-during-wwii/
(13) Anonymous, May 10, 2018 1:54 PM
when GOOD isn't enough
It's interesting and troubling that there were requests to bomb the death camps. As we reflect inward, we (the US) most likely did not put Jewish lives at the priority. However, had the US not joined the fight against Hitler, history would certainly be different.
As to precision bombing, several examples are mentioned, but let us not confuse 1944 bombing techniques with those of today, when we "precision bomb" .
There is so much sorrow here, but the banality of evil, as Dra. Arendt so wonderfully expressed, leads me to ask why and how Hitler and Germany were able to ruthlessly murder so many, where was the outrage and heroism from the country's citizens to end such horror?
May God Bless the United States.
(12) Anonymous, May 8, 2018 3:13 PM
The movie "The Monument Men" shows what FDR thought import to save
We don't know how important it was for FDR to save the Jews, but we do know how important it was for FDR to save the art. Just watch the movie "The monuments men"
(11) Baruch, May 8, 2018 2:24 PM
Doers & Sayers
So sad to see negativity and condemnations in this comment section by people who probably have done absolutely nothing about the massacres occurring right now. 4 million dead in Congo, half a million people dead in Syria, more than that displaced in Rhoyinga,... dozens of conflicts around the world...
Instead of spending time complaining how helpful leaders who are long gone could have done more to save others, how about spending time sending a single dollar to help save someone being massacred today? Did you?
David, May 9, 2018 3:51 PM
Well said
I think you have an excellent point-- perhaps you could reply with the names of a few reputable organizations doing something about these problems?
(10) Anonymous, May 7, 2018 5:47 PM
Who's in charge?
Over a million Jews were killed before the major death camps opened, so it's a myth that bombing railroad tracks to even the largest death camp (which are easily rebuilt) would have saved masses of Jews. Treblinka, etc. were hidden. Anyway, is this article saying that the God didn't know about the Holocaust and it was a man-made event? It was Roosevelt's, etc. fault that there was a Holocaust?
(9) Uri Kestenbaum, May 7, 2018 3:00 PM
Link to documentary: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=fLZsuat7bmU
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=fLZsuat7bmU
(8) Smcha, May 6, 2018 11:54 PM
FDR, not a great man
In the 1930s very few Jews were allowed to emigrate to the US because of Roosevelt's State Department. He knew about the camps. And this is the man who put Japanese Americans in concentration camps.
How American Jews could praise this biggoted man is beyond me.
(7) Phil Fine, May 6, 2018 6:28 PM
For a more balanced assessment
For a more balanced assessment of FDR's role in the Holocaust., read "FDR and the Jews," by Breitman and Lichtman.
“Breitman and Lichtman take pains to highlight what FDR did do to aid Jews fleeing Europe, and which has been largely ignored by his critics
"Breitman and Lichtman conclude—wisely—that ‘without FDR’s policies and leadership,’ the Germans and Italians would have beaten the British in North Africa and conquered, which would have ended all hopes for a future Israel (and put hundreds of thousands of more Jews in harm’s way).
"And, they continue, even though the war always took priority over the rescue of masses of Jews ‘Roosevelt reacted more decisively to Nazi crimes against Jews than did any other world leader of his time.’”—Murray Polner, History News Network
“This splendid book should banish forever the notion that Franklin Roosevelt was a blinkered anti-Semite who made little effort to stop the Holocaust.
"With dazzling research and astute judgments, Richard Breitman and Allan Lichtman portray FDR as a cunning politician who, in the dreadful context of his times, did more to aid Jews than any other leader in the United States or abroad.”—Michael Kazin, author of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation
Rachel, May 9, 2018 7:07 AM
My in-laws are survivors, my father and uncles were in US military
Of course more could have been done, but to blame the Allies and equate them with Nazis is offensive in the extreme.
The Allied leaders were not dictators who could operate without political compromise. Just as many Europeans and Americans today oppose immigration of desperate refugees fleeing wars in the Middle East and (less obviously) gangs and crime in Latin America, there was no political will to take in numerous refugees from countries falling to the Nazi onslaught. Once France fell, Britain stood alone against the Luftwaffe. It's a miracle that the British were able to survive the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. And in the late 1930's, Jewish children were taken in by British families because of the growing danger to Jews in Germany.
America went to war in two theaters on opposite sides of the world following the attack on Pearl Harbor. My grand uncle was a mechanic at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and worked 12 hour shifts for most of the war years. While the pay was great, it was also a requirement because the US did not have enough ships, planes, bombs, weapons, etc.There were shortages of everything needed for military use. My grandparents' stoop railings were collected. Food, gasoline, and cloth were rationed or in short supply.
So, yeah, winning the war was job one. Every Holocaust victim is a tragedy, but so were British civilians dead in Blitz, so were young Allied soldiers dead on the battlefields, so were merchant marines lost at sea transporting desperately needed supplies when their ships were torpedoed by U-boats.
For the Jews, the Roma, the dissidents, and all the others lost in the horror, let us all say, "Never again."
(6) Aviel, May 6, 2018 5:35 PM
Don't think saving Jews was a consideration
Winning the war was the objective. I don't think bombing the death camps to save Jews was a priority. If Eisenhower had tears then he felt ashamed at the time. Afterwards his record re support of Israel was understandably only when he felt it in America's interests and he often sided with the Arabs.in addition one can trace a direct connection to the Eisenhower administration and today's Iran as along with the British the CiA assassinated the king and installed the Shah.
Anonymous, May 9, 2018 7:11 AM
Eisenhower reaction
Or maybe he felt profound sorrow for the Rabbi's loss.
(5) Yerachmiel Milstein, May 6, 2018 3:17 PM
bDE on the passing of Moshe Reich a”h
Reb Moshe Reich, quoted in the article, played a prominent role in the magnificent Astir Panai television special on the Klauzenburger Rebbe and it is therefore so very tragic that he passed away suddenly this past Wednesday. He was an extremely warm person, with an infectious smile and larger than life personality who supported many public charities as well as some very necessarily private ones. He was active in matters of Israeli security, who had close associations with prominent Israeli leaders and still found the time to do significant Jewish outreach. He was a long time friend whose absence is already palpable. May his family be comforted along with the mourners and Zion and Jerusalem.
(4) Anonymous, May 6, 2018 3:13 PM
Was it this R Moshe Reich, z”l?
A R Moshe Reich who was a Sanz-Klausenberger chassid passed away May 2, 2018
(3) Anonymous, May 6, 2018 3:10 PM
Don't confuse rebuke for lack of gratitude And don't try revisionism
To those who berate the Rebbe for rebuking the USA and the allies for not bombing the concentration camps because it shows lack of gratitude I am sorry to say you are confusing gratitude and rebuke. One is not a contradiction of the other. The reform rabbis in America gave life to that sort of lie and are equally guilty of the death of their brethren in Europe As for "predicting" that even if the Jews had not died in the gas chambers they would have died later, sorry, but history shows that those who were spared death from the gas chambers survived the war. (Members of my own family are living witness to that. They were in the gas chamber but due to sabotage by the inmates it did not function and they survived) We have tremendous gratitude for the efforts of the Americans and allies but please don't whitewash history and absolve the fact that that much more could have been done. The Polish also want to whitewash their country's role in the murder of the Jews but those who live ed there can testify that it is revisionism at its worst
(2) Mike, May 6, 2018 12:07 PM
So why did so many Jews support FDR??
Pres. Roosevelt was supported and loved by most Jews at the time. Even after his death he was seen as a hero to many American Jews. However, he didn't do nearly enough to save Jewish lives. He could have increased the quota for immigration, but he didn't. He could have bombed the railways and crematories, but he didn't. If FDR was such a hero, why didn't he give sanctuary to the passengers of the St. Louis? I'd like to hear Dr. Erbelding excuse for refusing sanctuary to over 900 Jews sitting on a ship right off shore.
Anonymous, May 6, 2018 6:46 PM
Where were so many Jews here in America when our brothers and sisters, family, friends needed help? How much did they do to help? Then ask what the Goyim did not do for us!
(1) Anonymous, May 6, 2018 11:49 AM
Beautiful article and strong documentary
Thanks for sharing this article with aish.com readers. Please note that reb Moishe Reich was tragically niftar last Wednesday. It's an honor and privilege that he was still interviewed before his tragic death and that he could tell the world of what he knew of the Klausenburger rebbe's speech to Eisenhower.