How did other countries respond to the Holocaust?

Answer 1

The reaction was one of shock, dismay, Horror and disbelief.

In general, people did not know of the existence of concentration camps until the end of World War II. But research suggests that Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, as well as many other prominent politicians knew about them as early as 1941.

Of course, they too would have been shocked, especially at the fact that they could do little about it as they were located deep inside German occupied territory.

Even the German people are said not to have known. Nazi Propaganda carefully refrained from using all too clear a terminology. It talked about 'relocation to the east', which is far more acceptable to the public opinion than 'we're sending them to death camps'. So even the German people were appalled when the news broke.

However, anyone with a little insight could have surmised what was really going on. And really it was known all along that anyone who was sent there would not be coming back.

So the shock was in finding out the actual gruesome details and the mass scale of the killings, not in finding out the existence of the camps. In addition, documentation and research shows that many a local town's population witnessed the killings by the German task forces. People even brought their dogs as if to go to a show.

To most good, honest and decent people however, a more rude shock could not be imagined. Learning of such atrocities after the joy of being liberated might well have been the deepest emotional fall mankind has ever experienced. From the utter joy of arguably the greatest days in history, to the rude awakening of finding out the details of the death camps, the darkest page in human history.

Answer 2

The world outside Nazi Europe received numerous press reports in the 1930s about the persecution of Jews. By 1942 the governments of the United States and Great Britain had confirmed reports about the Final Solution - Germany's intent to kill all the Jews of Europe. However, influenced by antisemitism and fear of a massive influx of refugees, neither country modified their refugee politics. No specific attempts to stop or slow the genocide were made until mounting pressure eventually forced the United States to undertake limited rescue efforts in 1944. In Europe, rampant antisemitism incited citizens of many German-occupied countries to collaborate with the Nazis in their genocidal policies. There were, however, individuals and groups in every occupied nation who, at great personal risk, helped hide those targeted by the Nazis. One nation, Denmark, saved most of its Jews in a nighttime rescue operation in 1943 in which Jews were ferried in fishing boats to safety in neutral Sweden.

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Not quite ... By 1942 international travel was so severely disrupted that there was no question of 'a massive influx of refugees'.

Answer 3

There was no television at this time. Other countries would have had radio reports and would have known about Germany's anti-Semitic measures leading up to the war. The U.K and American newspapers had voiced their disgust at Kristallnacht and other anti Jewish measures adopted by Germany in the pre-war years.

However the "Final Solution" i.e the change from persecution to outright mass murder of the Jews was not implemented until January 1942 at the Wannsee Conference chaired by Reinhard Heydrich. This decision was made in complete secrecy and members of the S.S were threatened with death if they discussed it with anybody including their closest family members.

Therefore not many people knew about it whilst the war was going on. It is well known that the allied and Russian forces didnt discover the concentration camps until they had beaten the Germans back close to the end of the war.

It is known that the Allies knew about the existence of Auschwitz early on but all they had was reconnaissance photos taken from the air. They also had no idea of its purpose believing it to be some kind of railway storage facility. They did refuse to bomb the railway lines which served Auschwitz for some unknown reason however.

Answer 4

Answer this question…

They established a new category of crimes for actions similar to those of the Holocaust.

Answer 5

they were given a homeland in palastine

Answer 6

The international reaction, when the world became fully aware of what the Nazis had done, was one of utter revulsion.

Answer 7

Many countries did not want to interfere with the battles so most watched. How ever France sent in troops to help save tutsis'