An academic has told the JC that the UK’s decision to open up its Holocaust archive could shed light on British wartime debate over whether to bomb Auschwitz.
Dr Andy Pearce of the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education said there was more to discover about the government’s knowledge of the Shoah and in particular the question over why Britain did not use its air power to shut down the death camps.
Dr Pearce said: “Towards the end of the war, we know that there was debate and deliberation around the prospect of potentially bombing the train lines to Auschwitz-Birkenau.”
Adding that there is known to have been a “difference of opinion that existed either between bureaucrats and or between ministers”, he said he hoped the opening of the archive would provide answers.
Lord Ahmad, the Foreign Office’s minister for human rights, said on Thursday the department was “working to release any Holocaust-related material it may hold and to make that public. We are committed to the continued review of our holdings, including those held by our Embassies overseas, and working with other government departments where relevant.”
Separately, Guernsey and Jersey have also confirmed their commitments to making all Shoah records publicly available, though Dr Gilly Carr, a Cambridge lecturer in archaeology who has extensively researched the German occupation of the Channel Islands, said “there is plenty to keep us going that is already open.”
She added, “The writing of history is only as good as our ability to ask the right research questions.”
Meanwhile, a trove of 787 books discovered in Austria in September 1945 after being looted by the Nazis will be released to the Wiener Holocaust Library in London, though the Foreign Office has not confirmed what additional material will be made public.
The historic collection, dating back to the late 16th century, had been hidden in St Lambrecht Abbey, a Benedictine monastery seized by the SS in 1938 and converted into sub-camps.
The museum’s director, Dr Toby Simpson, said: “The Wiener Library is proud of its long history of throwing light on the darkest chapters of history, and on the Holocaust in particular. It is crucial to ensure that the past is not ignored or locked away, but confronted and used as a tool for building a better future. We applaud the British government’s recent efforts to improve access to vital records, and look forward to future cooperation.”
