Mr. John W. Pehle, Executive Director
War Refugee Board
Treasury Department Building, Rm. 3414
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Pehle:
I refer to your letter of November 8th,
in which you forwarded the report of two
eye-witnesses on the notorious German concentration and extermination
camps of Auschwitz
and Birkenau in Upper Silesia.
The Operation Staff of the War Department
has given careful consideration to your suggestion
that the bombing of these camps be undertaken.
In consideration of this proposal the following
points were brought out:
a. Positive destruction of these camps would
necessitate precision bombing, employing
heavy or medium bombardment, or attack by
low flying or dive bombing aircraft, preferably
the latter.
b. The target is beyond the maximum range
of medium bombardment, dive bombers and fighter
bombers located in United Kingdom, France
or Italy.
c. Use of heavy bombardment from United
Kingdom bases would necessitate a hazardous
round trip flight unescorted of approximately
2,000 miles over enemy territory.
d. At the present critical stage of the
war in Europe, our strategic air forces are
engaged in the destruction of industrial
target systems vital to the dwindling war
potential of the enemy, from which they should
not be diverted. The positive solution to
this problem is the earliest possible victory
over Germany, to which end we should exert
our entire means.
e. This case does not at all parallel the
Amiens mission because of the location of
the concentration and extermination camps
and the resulting difficulties encountered
in attempting to carry out the proposed bombing.
Based on the above, as well as the most
uncertain, if not dangerous effect such a
bombing would have on the object to be attained,
the War Department has felt that it should
not, at least for the present, undertake
these operations.
I know that you have been reluctant to press
this activity on the War Department. We have
been pressed strongly from other quarters,
however, and have taken the best military
opinion on its feasibility, and we believe
the above conclusion is a sound one.
Sincerely,
John McCloy
Assistant Secretary of War