When in WW2 did the British public become aware of Nazi treatment of Jews?

Answer 1

Although the other answers are in part very true, there must have been some British members of the public who were aware of the impending plight of European Jews in Nazi Germany. Kristallnacht, when Jewish shops and businesses where targeted and smashed by Nazi thugs, happened in November 1933 and was reported in Britain. (The Times newspaper commented: "No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenceless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday.")
Many German Jews fled to the UK prior to the outbreak of WW2 and they must have told their stories. (In a recent episode of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' on BBC tv, the comedian David Baddiel told how his Grandfather was one of these refugees.) Many Jewish parents, realising that they would not be allowed to leave, but that there was a chance that their children could, sent their children to England. The poignant fact being that many of these children never saw their parents again.
I think that the full horror of the Nazi treatment of European Jewry wasn't fully understood by the British public until the end of the war as the other answerers have said. My Uncle was one of the British soldiers who arrived at Bergen Belsen about a week after it was liberated. He had fought in the war from 1939, was blown up in a tank in North Africa and fought up through Italy before being sent to France. He always said that none of those experiences had prepared him for what he witnessed at Belsen.
However I feel that the position of Jews in Germany under the Nazi regime was known to have been fraught with danger before the War, as many understood in Britain that anti semitism was ingrained in the Nazis' evil beliefs and doctrines.

Answer 2

The UK and US residents knew about Hitlers treatment of the Jews before WWII.
Hitlers mistreatment of the Jews began with banning them from ownership of property and business, and with having to wear a gold star on their clothing in the early 1930s. Throughout the 30s many Jews left Germany and Austris because of the governments worsening stance against the Jews. Most of these Jews passed through the UK on their way to other safe countries, predominantly the USA.
We were also aware of the death camps being used by the nazis to kill Russian soldiers, then Slavs, in 1942. This practice was then expanded to include Jews in 1943.
So now perhaps you will realise why most European Jews hate the American Jews, who opposed military action by Roosevelt, until the USA was itself finally attacked. They were happy to sit back and count the dollars they were earning at the expense of their European Jewish brethren, whilst there were many European Jews in the USA telling them what was going on, but were ignored in favour of greed.

Answer 3

The British people may not have known till after the war but the government did. Our bombers had flight paths over the smoking chimneys of death camps (they were seen by the prisoners). On their way to dropping those bombs on Germany they could have let a few drop on the chimneys; this would have slowed down the Nazi's killing rate and saved hundreds of lives. To our shame the pilots were not briefed to do this. I don't have access to my books at the moment but could probably find you some sources later in the month if your question is still running then.

Answer 4

Snippets of information came through, but they seemed so `far fetched` and un-believable that little notice was taken. It was really only when the allies came across the camps right at the end of the war, that the reality of what had gone on was realised. It was still a long time before the general public could even summon the imagination, to know about them. When news-reels were shown in cinemas, people cried and some had to leave the cinemas, it was so horrific.

Answer 5

n reaction to Jack B!! FYI, there is greater than a number of lack of awareness, incorrect information and outright lies floating on the internet approximately Jews!! interior the 1st place, the those that make up this bullshit that Jews have each and every of the wealth and are out to regulate the worldwide are patently JEALOUS!! those that make those comments do no longer possibly understand what Jews are approximately besides and not all Jews are rich!! Jews are continuously being singled out in the event that they do something incorrect, which has no longer something to do with being a Jew!! Jews are never taught to take great thing approximately any society or deny human beings economic prosperity!! And if those so called Christians proceed to unfold those lies, your no longer a real Christian besides!!

Answer 6

i think it was suspected a little while after the war started 1939 but by 1941 the British government had positive proof but remember prominent families were leaving Germany 2 years before the war started so the general feeling was with the Jude paintings on the Jews windows and the boycott of their shops it was generally felt the Jews were in for a rough time from the Nazi's

Answer 7

Although the facts were available, it didn't hit the public consciousness until the end of the war. The specific event that triggered awareness was the liberation of Bergen-Belsen camp in April 1945. The troops that liberated the camp were accompanied by the journalist Richard Dimbleby (father of David and Jonathan) who made radio broadcast and film reports that laid bare the horror that had been going on.

Answer 8

Much earlier than we would like to believe. I once met a Jewish man from Czechoslovakia who had been brought to England, at the age of 6, by a Church group in 1936!
Hitler's 'Final Solution' was really the final solution. He previously asked the USA, the UK and France to take German Jews. They all refused.

Answer 9

No proof till later on but with Jews evacuating into Brittian after kristallnacht they had to know. Anyway the Brittish would want to let people know how evil nazis were to get them to fight and help in the war effort.

Answer 10

It was only quite recently disclosed that British intelligence had intercepted and decoded German messages relating to plans to round up Italian Jews and ship them to Germany for liquidation. The information was shared with U.S. intelligence at the time, and its discovery sheds some light on the concerns of historians about what Allied governments knew about the Holocaust as it was being implemented.
Among documents released were some which provide more information on how much American and British officials knew early in the war about Hitler's plans for the Jews. A key document that provided the clue is a translated copy of a despatch filed by a Chilean diplomat in Prague in November 1941, which discusses the Nazi plan to eradicate European Jewry. It was intercepted by British intelligence and passed on to U.S. intelligence officials, but there is no indication of how many others in the U.S. government saw the document or knew about its contents.
The Chilean's despatch said, in part: "The German triumph [in the war] will leave Europe freed of Semites. Those [Jews] who escape with their lives from this trial will certainly be deported to Siberia, where they will not have much opportunity to make use of their financial capabilities. In proportion to the U.S.A. increasing its attacks on the Reich, Germany will expedite the destruction of Semitism, as she accuses international Judaism of all the calamities which have befallen the world."

During World War II, the Zionist aliyah effort focused on rescuing Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe. Some immigrants entered the country on visas issued under the "White Paper" quota; the majority came illegally. This immigration, called Aliyah Bet, arrived by land and by sea, from Europe and the Middle East, in contravention of British orders.

The loss of contact with European countries, the hazards of maritime travel under wartime conditions, and the difficulty in obtaining vessels for transport of illegal immigrants placed severe constraints on Aliyah Bet. Several boatloads of immigrants who managed to reach Palestine were sent back by British authorities upholding the quota system. Many lost their lives at sea or in the Nazi inferno in Europe. Overland, 1,350 Syrian Jews were escorted to Palestine in an intricate and audacious operation. In 1940, 267 refugees were killed accidentally by the Haganah during an attempt to prevent the British from deporting them on the 'SS Patria' in Haifa harbour.

The British disgraced themselves further in February 1942 in the case of the Romanian ship 'Struma' which anchored in Turkey awaiting permission to land 747 Romanian Jews in Palestine. The British not only refused to let the refugees continue to Palestine, they encouraged Turkish authorities to tow the ship into the Black Sea and cast it adrift, an inhuman act given that the passangers had been on board for 74 days, overcrowded with inadequate supplies. The ship was then sunk by a Russian submarine with the loss of 796 people. This tragic incident was the final blow to support of Britain among the Jews of Palestine.

As far as the British public were concerned, while Jews were aware that persecution was underway because so many children were being smuggled out of Hitler's Germany and Austria in the 1930's, I don't believe that it was a matter which was aired publicly, as naturally the Jews would have felt some reticence at a time when it was perfectly possible that Britain would be invaded and occupied. Better to stay quiet, just in case.