The Destruction of Dresden
ISBN 0705700305 | | |
Followed by | The Mare's Nest |
---|
The Destruction of Dresden is a 1963 book by British author and
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
Influence on literature
The writer
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.
- ISBN 0-465-02152-2.
- Guttenplan, D.D. (2001). The Holocaust on Trial. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 43, 225. ISBN 9780393020441.
- 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.