Kitchens III. The Bombing of Auschwitz Re-Examined. The Journal of Military History. 58 (April 1994): 233-266.Should have or could have the Allies destroyed the gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz? This is the central question discussed in this article by James H. Kitchens III. In this article Kitchen begins by outlining the various arguments that have been made stating that the Allies should have and could have bombed Auschwitz. Kitchen highlights excerpts and points made in Why Wasnt Auschwitz Bombed? by Roger Williams and The Abandonment of the Jews and Why Auschwitz was Never Bombed, both by David Wyman. These and other works are highlighted to explain how the bombing idea began to take shape as early as the 1960s. After Wyman published his article in 1978, he was attempting to explain exactly how the Allies could have launched an aerial attack on Auschwitz. Also, Wymans book that was published in 1984 went further to say that the Allies could have bombed Auschwitz and their failure to do so amounted to abandonment of the Jews. Wyman in his book actually list twelve possible scenarios how the Allies could have attacked Auschwitz. From here, the main thrust of Kitchens article is to prove how and why these arguments made by scholars, especially Wyman, are flawed and not plausible during World War II. Wyman suggests there were two main pieces of information that would have allowed the Allies to launch an aerial attack against Auschwitz. Theses were photos taken by the USAAF of the I.G. Farben Monowitz complex, which was a slave labor camp near Auschwitz. The second piece of information was the report provided by two escapees from Auschwitz, Vrba and Wetzler, Wyman says that armed with these two pieces of information, the Allies had enough knowledge to launch an attack. Kitchens points out that the photos taken by USAAF that Wyman relies on were unclear and really did not do anything to help the Allies focus in on t...
