Intelligence, the Polish Resistance and Government in Exile

Sabotage of Railways, and Aerial Bombing of Auschwitz (or lack thereof)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23777/sn.0125/art_gseg01

Keywords:

military intelligence, Polish government in exile and resistance, Auschwitz, aerial bombing, railway sabotage

Abstract

In 1981, Sir Martin Gilbert published his influential work Auschwitz and the Allies, arguing that the West was unaware of the “true nature” of Auschwitz Birkenau until 1944. He wrote about this in the context of whether to bomb railway lines and the camp itself. This did not materialise and has come to symbolise in the popular mind callous indifference to—or even complicity in—the crimes the Nazis committed there. This article contributes to the debate and discipline by focusing on how the Polish resistance, its intelligence operations, and government-in-exile in London provided a constant flow of information from 1942, some of which was made public at the time. Furthermore, this article argues that, on the one hand, the Allies lacked the accurate bombing capability until April 1944. However, on the other hand the viable option of sabotage of railways by the Polish resistance was not even attempted to prevent Jews being taken to their incarceration and death. Could Britain and the Allies, including the Polish resistance, have done more to stop the horrors of Auschwitz? The answer is “yes”.

Author Biography

  • Glen Segell, University of Cambridge

    Glen Segell (DPhil, FRGS) is Professor at the University of Cambridge. He is Research Fellow at the Ezri Center for Iran & Gulf States Research, University of Haifa and Associate of the Think Tank for Research on Islam and Muslims in Africa (RIMA). He is Editor of The Middle East Tracker and The London Security Policy Study. He is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Academic Peer Review Journals: the Journal of European and American Intelligence Studies (Athens) and of the Wilberforce Journal of Social Sciences (Nigeria). He is a member of the Governing Council of the International Political Studies Association Research Committee on Armed Forces and Society. He holds a BA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Doctorate from the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Subjects that interest him are history and politics, especially extremist politics. He has been a lecturer and researcher in various organizations in Israel, the United Kingdom and South Africa. He is a Brigadier-General (Reserves) and an expert advisor for NATO STO. He is a Member of the Executive Committee of the Western Galilee College.

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Published

2025-03-05

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2025): S:I.M.O.N. – SHOAH: INTERVENTION. METHODS. DOCUMENTATION.

Section

ARTICLES

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Glen Segell

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How to Cite

“Intelligence, the Polish Resistance and Government in Exile: Sabotage of Railways, and Aerial Bombing of Auschwitz (or Lack Thereof)”. 2025. S: I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation. 12 (1): 67-87. https://doi.org/10.23777/sn.0125/art_gseg01.