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AMERICAN REPORTERS FINALLY
SEE THE HORRORS
New York Times, July 23, 1944 page 1. |
July 23, 1944:
Soviet troops liberate the abandoned Nazi death camp at Majdanek,
in Poland. For the first time, reporters file eyewitness accounts
from inside the killing centers. The story eventually makes the
front page of most papers. Respected New York Times reporter
W.H. Lawrence describes Majdanek as "the most terrible place
on the face of the earth." His story runs on the front page.
The following day the New York Times runs an editorial supporting
the credibility of Lawrence’s reporting.
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 Why
didn’t the Allies bomb Auschwitz?
During
the summer of 1944, Jewish leaders and the War Refugee board
repeatedly ask the War department to bomb the gas chambers
or the railroad lines leading to Auschwitz. The War Department
refuses, claiming the camps were " beyond the maximum
range " of their bombers. But an aerial photograph taken
on September 13, 1944 shows bombs being dropped directly over
Auschwitz, targeting a rubber factory nearby. The debate about
bombing the camps never became public, but remains a topic
of controversy.
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