Holocaust

None has suffered more cruelly than the Jew the unspeakable evils wrought on the bodies and spirits of men by Hitler and his vile regime. The Jew bore the brunt of the Nazis’ first onslaught upon the citadels of freedom and human dignity. He has borne and continued to bear a burden that might have seemed to be beyond endurance. He has not allowed it to break his spirit; he has never lost the will to resist. Assuredly in the day of victory the Jew’s sufferings and his part in the struggle will not be forgotten. Once again, at the appointed time, he will see vindicated those principles of righteousness which it was the glory of his fathers to proclaim to the world.

1941, 14 November. (Unrelenting, 310-11.)

Message to the Jewish Chronicle on its centenary.

Is there any reason to raise this matter with the Cabinet? Get anything out of the air force you can—and invoke me if necessary.

1944, 7 July. (Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill Centre Holocaust Lecture, Washington, 1993.)

Churchill’s minute to Eden on a report requesting bombing the railroad lines to Auschwitz, an altogether unique reaction, according to his biographer Sir Martin Gilbert.

There is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world, and it has been done by scientific machinery by nominally civilised men in the name of a great State and one of the leading races of Europe. It is quite clear that all concerned in this crime who may fall into our hands, including the people who only obeyed orders by carrying out the butcheries, should be put to death after their association with the murders has been proved.

1944, 11 July. (OB VII, 847.)

After the invading Allies began discovering the German death camps.

I must say that I had no idea, when the war came to an end, of the horrible massacres which had occurred; the millions and millions that have been slaughtered. That dawned on us gradually after the struggle was over.

1946, 1 August.

As his biographer Sir Martin Gilbert has shown, Churchill had only limited awareness of the extent of the Holocaust during the war; his reactions to the news were in keeping with his character.