The Holocaust, why did Anglo-Jewry stand idly by?

During various stages of the implementation of the Nazi anti-Jewish policy and of the Holocaust, British Jewry manifested too little empathy and compassion toward the victims and too few efforts on their behalf. In 1933-39 the Jewish leadership adopted the attitude of the British authorities toward the refugees: they would have the status of transmigrants and the Jewish organizations would be in charge of their welfare. The attitude of rank-and-file British Jews toward the refugees was often negative. In 1940 many of them supported the policy of internment of Central European Jews. Their reaction at the end of 1942 to news of the Nazi mass murder of Jews was muted, and they failed to exert significant pressure on the government in regard to the bombing of Auschwitz in 1944. The passivity of British Jews in the face of the Holocaust can be attributed not only to their wish to appear "British" and patriotic, but also to the fact that many of them adopted the antisemitic attitudes of British society. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)