Site of one of the greatest
atrocities of war ever. Incredibly disturbing, and frightening to know that something like this happened, because what's to say it could never happen again? As the old saying goes,
History repeats itself. Here are some of the facts from a report I wrote on the subject:
- The bombing started on 13 February 1945, and ended 14
February 1945.
- The
civilian casualty rate has been estimated at anywhere from 35,000 to 135,000.
- Refugees fleeing from
the Red Army had caused the
population of Dresden to
double shortly
before the attack, thus the
high number of civilian casualties.
- What made matters
worse, is that Dresden was not a
city affiliated with the
military, it was a
cultural, and railroad
distribution centre. It was not
attacked because of its
strategic value, the attack was
meant to
destroy civilian
morale.
- The main
reasons for the
bombing were
political. The PM of Britain at the time,
Winston Churchill, wanted to
destroy not only the
military machine of
Germany, but to stop the
advance of the
Soviet Union. Germany
was one of Britain's
imperialist rivals at the time.
- Civilians attempting to flee along the
banks of the
Elbe river were
killed by low-flying
planes equipped with
machine guns.
Roads known to be
escape routes were also
bombed.
- A few places in the city were
left un
touched: the
barracks in the city's north, the
train station where
trains carrying
reserves for the
Eastern Front might
depart, as well as large white
oil tanks that belonged to
Britain's
Shell Oil. The only possible
economic or
military targets within the city were left
alone.
I still find the most alarming thing about it all to be the
lack of humanity and
compassion a group of people can have towards another. I also think that schools should concentrate more on the terrible things that
both sides did during the wars. I'm not sure about elsewhere, but I learned
precious little about such things, the focus was placed on the supposedly good accomplishments of "our" side, and the "evil" ways of the
opposing forces.
- See also:
Hamburg.