Not Altogether Why We Fought

Patriots will no doubt rejoice to discover that, although British awareness of the Holocaust did not necessarily begin with Mr Churchill's personal liberation of Auschwitz, British values regarding the victims were about as robust as ever. Public sympathy for European Jews was duly balanced with legitimate and understandable concerns about shirking and black-marketeering; and when immigration restrictions were slightly eased after Kristallnacht hinted at what was to come, the mercies of the British state were confined to selected children. Roma, non-heterosexuals and other genuine Untermenschen were doubtless as common-sensically forgotten at the time as the sufferings and sacrifices of the Communist hordes are patriotically elided today.