The
most controversial aspect of the debate is the casualty figures and
their implications. David Irving estimated in 1963 that 135,000
people had died in the raids based of a report from Hans Voigt.1
However Irving was forced to retract this statement in latter
editions as, “the author felt bound to submit to The Times an
immediate letter drawing attention
to these new documents...”2
In his 1999 edition he makes a final estimate of, “Sixty thousand
or more; perhaps a hundred thousand – certainly the largest single
air raid massacre of the War in Europe.”3
However Irving contradicts himself over the figures also stating,
“The
night’s death toll in Dresden was estimated to him at a quarter of
a million.”4
These
figures allow Irving to draw comparisons between Hiroshima stating,
“(The
raid was thus comparable with....the atomic bombing of Hiroshima five
months later 71,379
Japanese
were slaughtered.)”5
and more importantly the holocaust so that he can place Dresden in a
'class' of it's own. This is so he can elicit sympathy for Germans
whilst depicting the Allies as monstrous as well as
In
his book, Hitler's
War and The War Path,
Irving refers to Dresden as, “the
holocaust of Dresden”6
Irving deliberately uses his rhetoric describing the casualty figures
so that they can be brought into the same light as those of the
holocaust. In a lecture in 1988 Irving states, “...the biggest lie
that we propagated as far as I can see was the gas chamber lie.”7
Is this in tune with the rest of my essay or should it be be rewritten.
1Ibid.,
p. 504
2Irving.,
op. Cit, p.289
3Ibid.,
p.289
4D.
Irving, Hitler's War and The War Path,
Focal Point, 2002, p.789
5Ibid.,
p.289
6Irving,
op. Cit, p. 796
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