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December 7, 2005
"You Learn Something New" Department, #3"
I knew that the U.S. military declined requests to bomb the train tracks leading to the Nazi concentration camps in Poland.
I didn't know we declined to do it because we thought that was Soviets' department.
(This is a memo from Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy's top assistant, relating to a request the War Department had received to bomb the train tracks that were about to be used for the deportation of the Jews of Hungary.)
Posted by Eric at December 7, 2005 7:40 PM
Comments
No doubt H.A.G. would have deemed Saddam Hussein to be "within the operational responsibility of the United Nations." The impulse to let crimes against humanity be somebody else's problem is alive and well.
Posted by: lostingotham at December 7, 2005 8:28 PM
Do you photocopy the documents in the archives, or are these digital photos? They look way better than photocopies to me. If digital, do you bring in a tripod to the archives?
Posted by: Jim E. at December 8, 2005 7:46 AM
I've kicked the photocopying habit and now take digital photos. I brought a tripod the first time I went with the camera, but quickly ditched it. I take *lots* of photos every day--usually in the vicinity of 500--and it's much quicker and easier just to stand and snap the pictures with camera in hand. The light level at the archives in College Park is sufficient for this, though I have to set the camera pretty carefully to get a good shot. Regrettably, the light level in the reading room in the downtown archives in DC (the big building on the Mall where the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are displayed) is very, very bad. To make matters worse, the archives just redesigned its reading room, and made *no* improvement whatsoever in the amount of available light.
Posted by: Eric at December 8, 2005 8:01 AM