[minthd]

>> the horror of the concentration camps was not well known to the public during the war

But it was pretty well known for the british and american governments(since 1941 or at the latest 1942) , and even to this day, some details of said knowledge(the intelligence reports on decryptions on concentration camps communication) are not availble to historians.

One has to wonder why.

Actually when reading more about it, even if the American public would have known, it probably wouldn't have mattered much, judging by later genocides :

""no U.S. president has ever suffered politically for his indifference to its occurrence[genocide]. It is thus no coincidence that genocide rages on."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060541644/metafilter...

Also another book shows how the holocaust was an open secret , known to millions since at least 1941:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805059849/metafilter...

[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.

[onewaystreet]

By the 1940s most of the top leaders in the US and Britain knew of the concentration camps. But at that point there wasn't much to be done about them besides winning the war.

[minthd]

Not really. For example it was maybe possible to reliably warn other Jews. Or maybe help other Jews in countries that might in the future be aimed by Hitler find refuge.

Potentially they could have saved many.