By Alan Newman, JNS
The U.S. War Department rejected proposals to attack trains to Auschwitz and the death camp itself as “impracticable,” claiming it would require “considerable diversion” of planes needed elsewhere.
Under the orders of U.S. President Donald Trump, on June 22, American airmen flew B-2 bombers tens of thousands of miles, releasing powerful “bunker-buster” bombs, destroying Iran’s nuclear-weapons factories as American sailors on a distant submarine fired salvos of dozens of Tomahawk missiles.
The mission followed nearly two weeks of aerial assault by the Israel Air Force. Coordinated efforts between two allies ensured a military success with the nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, and other strategic facilities, either obliterated or severely damaged.
Now let’s turn the clock back some 80 years.
One day after Christmas in 1944, U.S. Air Force pilot George McGovern, who would someday be the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate, led a squadron of B-24s. They dropped 50 tons of bombs on oil plants in Monowitz, an industrial section of Auschwitz where more than 1 million people were murdered. The target was located less than five miles from the crematoria and rail lines that transported Jews to the camp.
Despite being repeatedly asked, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt disapproved of bombing the rail lines. Because of his indifference, untold numbers of Jews who could have been spared were murdered.
Trump had decided that the threat of a nuclear Iran was too great and, despite all the risks implicit with a hot war, felt it was his duty to act. By contrast, regarding the Iranian threat, former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden had jawed about not allowing Iran to have a bomb and that they had Israel’s back. They naively chastised Iran with warnings of “Don’t” that were disrespectfully ignored. Across the Mideast, they had postured with threats of “red lines,” but those were crossed. They signed agreements that effectively gave Iran a legal path to a nuclear bomb.
During Trump’s first presidential campaign announcement in 2015, he said of Obama, “Take a look at the deal he’s making with Iran. He makes that deal, Israel maybe won’t exist very long. It’s a disaster, and we have to protect Israel.” Trump gets high marks for prescience, loyalty and consistency.
Iran, for decades, vowed “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” Iran had a clock in Tehran that counted down to Israel’s demise in 2040. Trump must have heeded the sage advice once uttered by former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who said, “When someone says they are going to kill you, believe them.”
The story is simple: Trump bombed Iran, a country that fanatically sought another Holocaust. To destroy Israel, Iran had created a network of terrorist proxies, developed rocket technology to deliver nuclear warheads and pursued nuclear technology that was only useful for weaponization. Trump’s bias for common sense and action did the world a favor. He was resolute, despite catastrophizing predictions of a regional war, thousands of dead Americans and World War III.
David S. Wyman’s Abandonment of the Jews and Rafael Medoff’s FDR and the Holocaust present ample evidence of Roosevelt’s shameful and cunning behavior, ignoring the systematic annihilation of 6 million European Jews. In these books, we learn that the U.S. War Department rejected the proposals as “impracticable,” claiming such raids would require “considerable diversion” of planes needed for the war effort. U.S. officials claimed to have conducted a “study” that found that bombing Auschwitz was not militarily feasible, but no evidence of the alleged study was ever found.
History will show that Trump, who bombed Iran to halt the mullah’s plan for another Holocaust, was far more courageous and honorable than Roosevelt, who did not bomb the rail lines to Auschwitz.
Trump deserves the full-throated appreciation of Israelis, Americans and all Western countries. He is especially due gratitude from today’s Jews, regardless of their current political preference. Trump should be celebrated as the president who bombed the proverbial “rail lines.”
