And Donald Bloxham argues that while “whatever Dresden was, it was not Auschwitz,” it still remains “a black spot on the British conscience,” a disproportionate and indiscriminate act committed in pursuit of a just end.
Overy trace the wartime and postwar discussion, debate, and mythmaking about the raid. Crang’s analysis of the wartime diaries of Jewish professor Victor Klemperer explores how some of the city’s dwindling Jewish population regarded the attack as a godsend. “This was not a war,” he writes, “which was obviously over to those engaged in fighting it.” Sönke Neitzel delves into the state of German air defenses and what it meant to be “under the bombs” that night. Most notably, the December 1944 Ardennes counteroffensive and signs of German technological developments, like jet fighters and improved U-boats, stoked fears among the Allied leadership of a lengthy struggle. He notes complex factors that led to the decision to attack Dresden. Sebastian Cox warns against comfortable judgments made in hindsight. The nine core chapters range across the development of strategic bombing theory and practice the planning and execution of the raid debates about the effectiveness, legality, and morality of the bombing the political and cultural symbolism of Dresden and the significance of Dresden’s reconstruction. Yet there is apparently no reconciling the debate about Dresden: Was the city the innocent victim of Allied war crimes or a serious military target?įirestorm, an edited collection of papers from an international conference of leading military historians, sheds important light on the topic by exploring various facets of the raid, its aftermath, and its legacy. The rebuilding of the historic Frauenkirche, architectural and emotional symbol of the city’s destruction, was widely viewed as a milestone of postwar reconciliation.
The Allied air raid on the beautiful Saxon city of Dresden was a defining moment that bridged the World War II and the Cold War. WWII Book Review: Firestorm- The Bombing of Dresden | Historynet Closeīy Paul Addision and Jeremy A.