Dresden bombing killed fewer than thought, report concludes - International Herald Tribune

Description

The Allied firebombing of the eastern German city of Dresden in 1945 killed no more than 25,000 people — far fewer than scholars' previous estimates running as high as 135,000 — a special commission has found.

Nazi propaganda from 1945 put the toll at some 200,000. Under communist East Germany, authorities agreed upon 35,000. Current neo-Nazis offered a sharply inflated figure.

The team of experts has pored through more than 2,600 linear feet (800 linear meters) of files in the Dresden state archives and interviewed dozens of witnesses.

The commission has also consulted studies on aerial attacks, rescue operations, firefighting, and archaeological evidence.

Despite the chaos during the final days of the war and the devastation of the bombing, they said they found that records of the recovery and burial of the dead from the raid was "remarkably orderly."

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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/01/europe/EU-Germany-Dresden-Bombing.php

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/01/europe/EU-Germany-Dresden-Bombing.php