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One of the convenient excuses that was used by the Allied powers for not bombing the rail lines to Auschwitz at the height of the Nazi Final Solution was that they were unaware of what was going on behind the fences and walls of the concentration camp. During the ensuing 60 years, numerous researchers have produced sufficient documents to demonstrate that there had been enough reports, including eyewitness evidence, for a true picture to emerge and that, had they wanted, the Allied powers could have used their air forces to take action.

One of the most important contemporary historians of that era, Sir Martin Gilbert, has concluded that the lack of action was due to a complex set of realpolitik considerations on the part of the western governments, and in particular...