The Destruction of Dresden
 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | David Irving |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Bombing of Dresden in World War II |
| Publisher | William Kimber & Co. |
Publication date | 1963 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| ISBN | 0705700305 |
| Followed by | The Mare's Nest |
The Destruction of Dresden is a 1963 book by British author and Holocaust denier David Irving, in which he describes the February 1945 Allied bombing of Dresden in World War II. The book became an international best-seller during the 1960s debate about the morality of the World War II area bombing of the civilian population of Nazi Germany. Despite having long being praised and held in high esteem, the book is no longer considered to be an authoritative or reliable account of the Allied bombing and destruction of Dresden during February 1945.[1][a]
Origins
The book, an international best seller when published in the 1960s,[2] is based on a series of 37 articles about strategic bombing during World War II titled Wie Deutschlands Städte starben (How Germany's Cities Died) which Irving wrote for the German journal Neue Illustrierte.
Deaths
In the first edition, Irving estimated that the two Royal Air Force raids and the first U.S. Army Air Forces raid combined were "estimated authoritatively to have killed more than 135,000 of the population [of Dresden]..."[3] and the "documentation suggests very strongly that the figure was certainly between a minimum of 100,000 and a maximum of 250,000".[4][b] In 1965, General Ira C. Eaker identified the number as 135,000.[5]
Irving's first edition figures became widely accepted and were used in many standard reference works. In later editions of the book over the next three decades, he gradually adjusted the figure to:
- In the 1971 edition, the three raids "estimated authoritatively to have killed more than 100,000 of the population...".[6]
- In the 1995 edition, the three raids "cost the lives of between fifty and one hundred thousand inhabitants....".[7] Richard J. Evans states that "Elsewhere he dropped the lower figure and said the attack cost 'up to a hundred thousand people their lives'".[8]
According to Richard J. Evans, an expert witness for the defence at the 2000 libel trial of Deborah Lipstadt,[9] Irving based his estimates of the dead at Dresden on the word of one individual, Hans Voigt, who provided no supporting documentation,[10] used a document forged by the Nazis,[11] and described one witness named Max Funfack as Dresden's Deputy Chief Medical Officer.[12] Funfack had made it clear by letter to Irving on 19 January 1965 that he had not been either the Chief or Deputy Chief Medical Officer in Dresden, that he had no knowledge of any documentation about the number of people who were killed in the bombing, and during the war he had only heard rumours, which varied greatly, over the number of people who were killed in the raids.[12][13]
Influence on literature
The writer Kurt Vonnegut (who witnessed the bombing of Dresden from the basement of a slaughterhouse as a prisoner of war) used The Destruction of Dresden as a source for the 1969 novel Slaughterhouse Five where he wrote that he emerged from the slaughterhouse to discover that "135,000 Hansels and Gretels had been baked like gingerbread men".[14]
Notes
- ^ "Not one of [Irving's] books, speeches or articles, not one paragraph, not one sentence in any of them, can be taken on trust as an accurate representation of its historical subject. All of them are completely worthless as history, because Irving cannot be trusted anywhere, in any of them, to give a reliable account of what he is talking or writing about (Evans 1996d, General Conclusion ¶ 6.21).
- ^ An authoritative independent investigation commissioned by the city council of Dresden in 2010 reported a maximum of 25,000 victims (Neutzner 2010, p. 68).
- ^ Schoenfeld 2004.
- ^ Packer 2010.
- ^ Evans 1996 cites Irving, Corgi, edn. 1966, vii.
- ^ Evans 1996 cites Irving, Corgi, edn. 1966, p. 225.
- ^ Irving 1965, p. 8.
- ^ Evans 1996 cites Irving, Corgi, edn. 1971, p. 7.
- ^ Evans 1996 cites Focal Point, ix.
- ^ Evans 1996 cites Focal Point, p. 167.
- ^ Evans 2001.
- ^ Evans 1996a.
- ^ Evans 1996c.
- ^ a b Evans 1996b.
- ^ Guttenplan 2001, p. 225.
- ^ Lipstadt 2007.
References
- Neutzner, Matthias; et al. (2010). "Abschlussbericht der Historikerkommission zu den Luftangriffen auf Dresden zwischen dem 13. und 15. Februar 1945, p. 70" (PDF). Landeshauptstadt Dresden. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
- Evans, Richard (1996). "(i) Introduction". David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial: Electronic Edition. Lewis H. Beck Center for Electronic Collections and Services, Emory University Atlanta. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- Evans, Richard (1996a). "(ii) Unreliable evidence: the testimony of Hans Voigt.". David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial: Electronic Edition. Lewis H. Beck Center for Electronic Collections and Services, Emory University Atlanta. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- Evans, Richard (1996b). "(A) Misattribution of authorship and responsibility.". David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial: Electronic Edition. Lewis H. Beck Center for Electronic Collections and Services, Emory University Atlanta. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- Evans, Richard (1996c). "(B) Suppression of internal inconsistencies.". David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial: Electronic Edition. Lewis H. Beck Center for Electronic Collections and Services, Emory University Atlanta. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- Evans, Richard (1996d). "6. General Conclusion". David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial: Electronic Edition. Lewis H. Beck Center for Electronic Collections and Services, Emory University Atlanta. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
- Evans, Richard J. (2001). Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial. New York: Basic Books. pp. 170. ISBN 0-465-02152-2.
- Guttenplan, D.D. (2001). The Holocaust on Trial. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 43, 225. ISBN 9780393020441.
- Irving, David (February 1965) [1963 – Foreword by Robert Saundby]. The Destruction of Dresden (first Ballantine paperback – Introduction by Ira C. Eaker ed.). Elmfield Press. pp. 8, 246. ISBN 0-7057-0030-5.
- Lipstadt, Deborah (17 April 2007). "Kurt Vonnegut: Using David Irving's fabrications to rewrite the history of the bombing of Dresden?". Retrieved 15 March 2012.
- Packer, George (1 February 2010). "Embers". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
- Schoenfeld, Gabriel (2 May 2004). "Firebombing". New York Times.