Letters recently found in U.S.
Archives prove the following:

1.

U.S. and German top-level government
officials talked with each other through Swiss and Irish consuls in
1944 and '45 about the condition of inmates in German-operated
camps,

2.

In 1944 German officials denied any intention
to mass-murder inmates,

3.

Germany guaranteed to evacuate inmates ahead
of Soviet advance, and

4.

Former camp inmates confirmed inmates were
being safely evacuated.

Allied experts combined air photo evidence with German
mass-murder denials and eye-witness confirmations before ordering
that camps such as Birkenau should not be
bombed.

Mass-murder denials:

At least once Germany publicly denied any intention to murder inmates.
An October 12 1944 letter talks of Germany's "press denial" of rumored
intentions to murder Birkenau inmates. This letter has never been released
to the public by the U.S. government.

It is almost certain that in 1943, and in particular after the U.S. War
Refugee Board started work in January 1944, there was a continual exchange
of top-level telegrams between the U.S. and Germany through Swiss and
Irish consulates discussing mass-murder rumors and the safety of camp
inmates.

If these telegrams still exist in U.S. government storage they must be
released to answer important questions.

Evacuation Guarantee:

Germany also guaranteed to the Allies that inmates of the Auschwitz
area camps would be evacuated before the Soviet Army advance.

As discussed in the January 20 telegram from the US Consul in
Switzerland, 2 Jewish women who had been Birkenau inmates from July to
October 1944, described the following evacuations to German camps:

1. September 1944 - "sizeable convoys" left Birkenau, each with "3,000
to 6,000" inmates,
2. Late September 1944 - 3,500 Hungarian and Slovak
women inmates left in one convoy, and
3. October 31 1944 - 500 women
inmates left Birkenau for Germany with the 2 eye-witnesses.

The
letters also show the U.S. accepted confirmation from spies and previous
inmates about what was actually occurring in the camps. The last sentence
of what the 2 women reported states:

"The natural mortality rate in all such work camps is high, due mainly
to under-nourishment, unhygenic conditions, and especially to exposure
from lack of sufficient clothing."

Bombing Decisions:

These newly released letters are further proof the Allies attempted to
verify mass-murder rumors in every possible way, including communicating
with the German government. In the end their decisions not to bomb
Birkenau proves they could not confirm any of the extermination rumors.

So together with air photo evidence, Allied decisions not
to bomb Birkenau were based on German murder denials and evacuation
guarantees supported by eye-witness accounts from previous
inmates.

INCOMING TELEGRAM - DEPARTMENT OF STATE
From: HUDDLE, Bern,
Switzerland
Dated: January 20, 1945, 3 p.m.
For: WRB from
McCLELLAND.
Rec'd: January 20, 11 p.m.

As reported in Legation's 6818 October 12 Germans issued press denial
of any intention to exterminate inmates of Tuwiecim and Birkenau following
contrary report brought out by Polish circles in London that time.

I have never been able to receive reliable confirmation of reports
circulated that orders have gone out to SS controlling Jewish camps to
kill all internees who cannot be evacuated in front of Allied advance.

(8 more paragraphs talk about Birkenau September and October, 1944
evacuations)

From: STETTINIUS acting for Department of State and War Refugee Board,
Washington, D.C.
Dated: January 22, 1945, 10 p.m.
For: HUDDLE and
McCLELLAND, Bern, Switzerland
Rec'd: January 22

Reference Department's 192 of January 13, Irish Department of External
Affairs, confirms that it inquired of German authorities concerning the
rumor that Germans intended to liquidate the inmates at camps Oswiecim,
Hoss, and Birkenau, and that the Germans replied that the rumor that it is
their intention to exterminate the Jews in these camps is pure invention
devoid of all foundation and that if the camps were to be abandoned their
inmates would be evacuated.

Please request Swiss Political Department to inform German Government
that the above reply of German authorities to Ireland has been noted by
the Government of the United States, and that this Government accordingly
expects that Jewish and other survivors of these and other concentration,
detention, and labor camps in Germany and German-controlled territory will
be kept alive by German authorities.

In view of the nearness of Oswiecim and Birkenau to the front, it is
urgent that the above communication reach German authorities with the
greatest possible speed.

STETTINIUS

WRB: 1/22/45

Allies believed Germans were helping inmates, not
murdering them!

If Germans were mass-murdering inmates they would not have answered
Allied questions and not have evacuated inmates.

But Germans publicly denied murdering inmates and the Allies confirmed
the Germans safely evacuated inmates after Allied requests.

After careful study the Allies confirmed the Germans were helping the
inmates, not murdering them, and so bombing of Birkenau and other camps
was never ordered.

Reference: Letters on file at Franklin D.
Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York, N.Y., U.S.A.