Bombing + Air Raid Defense

Bombardment of civilians in undefended cities far away from the front lines is an atrocity, yet it was common practice during World War II. Read here about the history, conduct, and consequences of this war crime, as well as the various attempts to protect the civilian population from death falling from the skies.

On Terror and Its other Names

When the Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, was shot by a Palestinian assassin the other day, it was the first killing of an Israeli cabinet minister by an Arab. It was not, however, the first killing of an Israeli cabinet minister per se: an Israeli Jew assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in late 1995. Illogically,…

Bomb Shelters in Birkenau: A Reappraisal

“In Memoriam!” Introduction A few years ago the argument began to emerge that the various gastight fixtures of the Birkenau crematoria were best explained in terms of protection against chemical warfare. The first exploration in this area was by Arthur R. Butz of Northwestern University, whose “Vergasungskeller” article of July 1996 argued that the basement…

Documents from the Moscow Archives describe building of air-raid shelters in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943

The imperfect translations which follow convey clearly enough the meaning of three documents recently forwarded by an anonymous source from Russian archives of captured German WWII documents to Samuel Crowell. They give details of logistical problems encountered in the building of hundreds of air-raid shelters at Auschwitz-Birkenau in April through November of 1944. This effort…

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