[hluska]

To add a strong counterpoint, I suggest that you read The holocaust in American life by Peter Novick. It's a rather controversial book and entire chapters piss me off in unbelievable ways, but Novick creates an interesting lens through which to view the Holocaust.

One important thing to consider is that the holocaust has become a singular concept of incredible horror that has shaped large swathes of foreign policy for fifty years. But, if you really want to understand the American populace's war time response (or lack of) to the holocaust, it's important to look at the holocaust from a 1940s sensibility.

First, while there is very credible evidence to suggest that while many westerners knew about the holocaust, there is equally credible evidence to suggest that even the best informed had little understanding of the scale or method of the death camps until the liberations started. At the time, speaking in terms of overall military might, it would have seemed unthinkable to kill off a potential work force. Second, and perhaps more importantly, even if the scale of the death camps had truly been known, it happened in the midst of a war that killed about 70 million people. It was another brutal dimension in a global war.