DO you think other nations could have prevented the Holocaust?

Answer 1

This is a contentious question and I dissent quite strongly from the view in the Community Answer.

There were various countries in a good position to help Jews and that were aware of the existence of Jewish persecution in Nazi-Occupied Europe. Most importantly, Britain, Canada, and the US routinely rejected the Immigration of refugees fleeing the conflict and sent them to Europe. It would be a trivial burden for the United States especially to have given refuge to the incoming Jews and absorb that population. It would similarly have been trivial for the British to reverse the White Paper of 1939 and permit Jews to flee to Mandatory Palestine. Similarly, Allied Air Commanders chose not to bomb the rail-lines to the Death Camps, even though doing so would have delayed thousands if not tens of thousands of deaths.

There is a reason today, for example, that the US used airlifts to save the Yezidis on Mount Sinjar from the genocidal intentions of Islamic State and this because it is morally correct to use military power to stop or limit genocide. That the Allied Powers took no unique methods to stop this, even with minimal expenditure is a completely legitimate criticism to lob at them.

Answer 2

There is no 'should'.

Should cannot exist without responsibility and an absolute right and wrong. There is no way that people today can pass judgment on what happened seventy years ago.

What one can ask is whether it was possible for other countries to help, then to also ask if it was practical. The greatest question is whether these countries were in any position for those questions to even have been worth considering, namely in regards to what information they had on hand to act on.

Answer 3

Not really... due to the fact that Adolf Hitler had gain so much respect and power that no country really stood up to him until WWII.