International   

Dresden war death toll re-assessed

— Photo: AP

The demolished city of Dresden after the fatal allied forces’ air raids on February 13 and 14, 1945.

Berlin: The allied firebombing of the German city of Dresden in 1945 claimed far fewer lives than previously believed, according to an independent group of historians.

While estimates for the numbers killed in the attacks on the city have fluctuated wildly between 35,000 and half a million over the past six decades, the historians commissioned by the city say the figure was considerably lower.

“The results of the commission conclude that 18,000 to 25,000 people died in Dresden from the air raids,” said an official. The figure has long been a matter of dispute, heightened by the entry into the regional parliament of Saxony in Dresden of the NPD, a far-right political party, who called the February 1945 raids a “bombing holocaust”, and claimed they had killed half a million.

The bombing, which took place just 12 weeks before the surrender of Nazi Germany, remains one of the most controversial actions of the World War II. While the operation was defended by the allies as a justified attack on a vital transport hub, most of those who died were civilians and refugees. Many were said to have perished in the resulting firestorm.

The former Mayor of Dresden, Ingold Rossberg, commissioned the 11-strong team of historians four years ago to try to establish a clear figure. The results were presented at Dresden’s annual Conference of Historians. While the figure is well below previous estimates, members of the conference were keen to stress that the report did not belittle the immensity of the act. Thousands of lives were claimed in just four U.S. and U.K. raids, lasting 63 minutes. Almost 4,000 tonnes of high explosives and incendiary devices were dropped.

Rolf-Dieter Muller, head of the commission, said the group had studied burial records from 1945, carried out witness interviews, and examined fire reports as well as undertaking extensive ground searches of the 13 square miles of the city that were destroyed.

The commission remained adamant that there was “no proof or serious indication” that the death toll could have greatly varied from the 25,000 that it has suggested.

In a further departure from widely accepted accounts of the bombing, it also contended that there was no evidence “that a large number of people were burnt without trace in the nights between February 13 and 14”. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Brown move surprises Mandelson
Secret passage of LTTE hit: Colombo
No aggressive conversion: Pope
U.S. offers new ideas to North Korea
21 killed in U.S. missile attack
Scotland Yard chief forced to quit
Nepal’s plea
New era of AIDS care in S. Africa
Dresden war death toll re-assessed
Pirates in no mood to surrender
Boy feeds zoo animals to crocodile

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu