Allies target Holocaust infrastructure when they learn of it, effect on the war?

One of the things that has not been mentioned (I think) is that until June 44 the Jewish council were against any attack on the concentration camps fear not incorrectly with the data to hand that such an attack would kill lots of Jewish people

No one in the west up until that point had a real grip on what was happening at these camps and the amount of murder being conducted until a Polish Ex Army officer escapes from Auschwitz with decent intel

Of course by at this time the Bomber forces have their work cut out directly supporting the allied landings in North and South France during the summer of 44.

Then there is a couple of months maybe between the end of the Normandy campaign and Nov 44 when Auschwitz murders its last victims and closes due to the approaching Red Army.

So if anything was to be done it can only really be done then unless solid intel is gleaned before the ramp up to Normandy
 
What if the Western Allies were in a better position to target the camps and infrastructure by continuing on from Italy to roughly Austria or even the Czech Republic before the Soviets reached those areas? As recall reading a while back of some believing the soft underbelly route could have potentially ended the war as early as 1943-1944.
 
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What if the Western Allies were in a better position to target the camps and infrastructure by continuing on from Italy to roughly Austria or even the Czech Republic before the Soviets reached those areas? As recall reading a while back of some believing the soft underbelly route have potentially ended the war as early as 1943-1944.
By that time you might as well just march on to Berlin.
 

Geon

Donor
And because of this, we can play the Nazis, right? If we bomb rail lines to the camps, then precisely because the Nazis are so damn determined, this will draw away some of their best resources. We will both slow the Holocaust and their war machine.

I'm not a military person, . . . but didn't we already bomb a lot of stuff and isn't a rail line a skinny target, unlike a factory? So perhaps railroads as solid secondary targets on bombing missions.

On the one hand GeographyDude has a point. Hitler and Himmler's obsession with genocide meant that large amounts of railroad stock which would have been useful to transport troops and war materials were diverted to shipping victims to the death camps. Forcing the Germans to now have to also divert personnel to repair rail lines might be to the Allies advantage.

Except...

In order to do that properly you have to do things like derailing trains at key junctions, destroying switching equipment and other rail related targets. That would require diverting not only bombers but also covert operatives on the ground from other missions. And as noted earlier American and English bomber losses over Germany were very high. How much would Bomber Command or for that matter the Intelligence Services want to risk using resources on missions that had little tangible result for the war effort?

Further, and on a darker note, if the Nazis saw that the Allies were destroying the rail lines to the death camps they might just choose to liquidate the remaining ghettos like they did during the Warsaw uprising - simply kill everyone in the area and level it.
 

Deleted member 1487

What if the Western Allies were in a better position to target the camps and infrastructure by continuing on from Italy to roughly Austria or even the Czech Republic before the Soviets reached those areas? As recall reading a while back of some believing the soft underbelly route could have potentially ended the war as early as 1943-1944.
You mean the tough old gut?
This BBC documentary on the subject might help you understand why that largely wasn't an option with OTL strategy:

Had the Allies done some things a bit differently in regards to Italy, such as bypassing Sicily entirely to land in Italy or say land part of their forces in Sicily to suck in Axis reinforcements, then land in Calabria to cut them off, would mean opening up the entire south and central of the country, which would then open up a ton of strategic options. The problem was the choices made IOTL, which were too cautious and made Italy an impossible route to victory.
 
. . . destroying switching equipment and other rail related targets. That would require diverting not only bombers but also covert operatives on the ground from other missions. . .
And covert personnel on the ground are probably even more of a limited resource.

We can hit rail bridges from above, although I bet that was already being done.
 
. . . such as bypassing Sicily entirely to land in Italy or say land part of their forces in Sicily to suck in Axis reinforcements, then land in Calabria to cut them off, . . .
I particularly like the second option.

It's like a skilled poker player making a hand more complicated, and thus giving the other player a chance to make a mistake.
 

Deleted member 1487

I particularly like the second option.

It's like a skilled poker player making a hand more complicated, and thus giving the other player a chance to make a mistake.
Which based on the historical reaction, would have worked perfectly. Which means Italy is undefended up to northern Italy, which also gives the Italians a chance to liberate most of their country and makes the German conquest of the Aegean and Italian army in it's capitulation much more difficult.
 
"A Problem From Hell": America and the Age of Genocide, Samantha Power, 2002.

https://books.google.com/books?id=L...hich Frankfurter told the eyewitness"&f=false

' . . . One need only recall the exchange during World War II between Polish witness Jan Karski and U.S. Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter in which Frankfurter told the eyewitness, "I do not mean that you are lying. I simply said I cannot believe you." Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel has spoken of the difference between "information" and "knowledge." . . . '
This is where we should cut people some slack.

A lot of different people had to take their time in order to really wrap their mind around the Holocaust.
 
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