The
most controversial aspect of the debate is the casualty figures and
their implications. David Irving estimated in 1963 that 135,000 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
This 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.)”4
and more importantly the holocaust.
1Ibid.,
p. 504
2Irving.,
op. Cit, p.289
3Ibid.,
p.289
4Ibid.,
p.289
I'm glad you are finally dealing with the numbers and equivalence. History can seem like academic quibbling at times - but it is life and and death, real lives and real deaths and how we respond as communities to our understanding of them. Thucydides knew this and so did almost everybody we've studied, and so does David Irving.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that Irving Knowingly uses history as his own propaganda.
ReplyDelete