>>I'm not blaming the US government for what the Germans did. I am blaming them for knowing about and still not opening the gates to allow as many refugees in as could get here, as well as for not taking action to shut down or slow the camps.
>>
>>I also blame the US government for the restrictive (and, in my view, racist) policies before the war that slowed immigration. While the death camps didn't start until the war was underway, serious repression of Jews and others started much sooner, pretty much as soon as Hitler took power. Yet, the US (and other countries) kept their borders barricaded.
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>>I do have a great deal of respect for the British who opened the doors to thousands of children (my mother among them).
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>>Tamar
>
>So you are for the US invading Iraq since they were oppressing the Kurds, right?

The US was already at war with Germany when the government learned of the camps. As for before the war, I think the US should have taken strong diplomatic measures to protest what the Nazis were doing. (At that time, the State Department was extremely anti-Semitic, and plenty of Americans shared their opinions.)

I'm not sure the death camps could have occurred outside the context of war, but if they had, it was a place for international response.

So to answer your direct quesiton, no, absolutely not. Should we have responded diplomatically? Yes. Should the international community have considered whether a military response was necessary? Yes.

Similarly, the international community (not the US alone) should be acting, possibly militarily, to the slaughter in Darfur.

Tamar