January 1, 1970

Introduced by Richard M. Langworth

After an emotionally draining tour at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, the official biographer offered a definitive account of Churchill and the Holocaust: what he knew, when he knew it, and how he reacted. His most striking reaction was to a 1944 request to bomb the railway lines leading to the Auschwitz death camp: ‘Get anything out of the Air Force you can, and invoke me if necessary.’ In millions of documents, Gilbert added, ‘I have never seen a minute of Churchill’s giving that sort of immediate authority to carry out a request’.

The railway lines were not bombed, and Sir Martin explains why, while answering many questions and challenges about what the Prime Minister tried to accomplish. In the end, Churchill knew exactly what had happened: ‘There is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world … by nominally civilized men and in the name of a great State and one of the leading races of Europe’.

The moving Introduction and Afterword to this speech, by Dr. Cyril Mazansky, are a cause for reflection for us all.

Read the full article here: ‘Churchill and the Holocaust: The Possible and Impossible’ by Martin Gilbert.