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Neo-Nazis to march as Dresden marks bombing
Published: 13 Feb 13 07:48 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20130213-47933.html
Dresden on Wednesday braced for potentially violent protests against a neo-Nazi march on the 68th anniversary of the Allied bombing of the eastern German city.
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“The police considers its duty to be a neutral party guaranteeing the freedom of assembly,” said Dresden Police Chief Dieter Kroll, according to public broadcaster MDR.
Far-right extremists gather in Dresden each February 13th to condemn the firebombing that nearly completely destroyed the city only months before the end of World War II. But local residents have challenged the neo-Nazi hijacking of the date for their propaganda purposes.
Saxony’s state premier Stanislaw Tillich and Dresden’s Mayor Helma Orosz on Friday called for a peaceful commemoration of the city’s destruction 68 years ago.
“I hope that many people will take part in the remembrances and human chain in the city,” Tillich said, referring to the year effort to peacefully block the path of the neo-Nazi march.
The massive Allied bombing raid on Dresden in February 1945 killed thousands of civilians even though it was strategically unnecessary at the time with Hitler’s forces nearly defeated.
The number of those who were killed has also been controversial, with an official estimate lowered to 25,000 a few years ago. Prior to that, hundreds of thousands where thought to have died in the raid.
The Local/mry
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Your comments about this article:
Having lived through the 2WW myself, I notice more and more, how historical facts have over the years - been manipulated, in order to fit in with present day politics.
One of the first books I read, while learning the German language, was called Deutsch für Ausländer. The book was in no way political, but did include the official assessment of the number of dead, (taken from eyewitness accounts a few days after the bombing). That was over 240 thousand! For many years this number was also used by the BBC in London.
Even if we take possible exaggerations into account, there would be no reason to completely ignore the counted number of bodies, this then stopped at 200 thousand, while the health danger was too high and the remains had to be destroyed. To say that only 25,000 were killed, is a political, not historical statement. The Commission which decided on this number, obviously ignored much of the evidence which had been available.
It has become a habit since the end of the war, to increase the amount of victims of German atrocities, while reducing the total of Germans who suffered, not only in Dresden. For example, over two million Germans deported from former German territories have just disappeared without any great notice being taken. Were the German government to be a little more honest in their presentation of passed events, we might find, that the number of Neo-Nazis would decline for lack of arguments.
but
The city was in Nazi Germany and there for a legitimate target. Hitler had not surrendered.
It was not just a cultural center but had factories that produced weapons for the Naziz and was a staging area to send troops to the Eastern front also making it a legitimate target.
and
The Americans and English knew they were going to have trouble with Stalin and wanted him to see first hand the awesome power that they could bring.A warning for the Russians not to stray from previous agreements.
Sadly they released 3300 tons of bombs many were Incendiary bombs, the city was taken by total surprise, in one of the most horrific, devastating and unnecessary loss of civilian life during the war. Truly shameful.
Amen.
Victors must tell a favorable version to convince the sheep the righteos won and in a humane way.
Just last fall the US acknowledged they help cover-up Katyn so the world would believe Germans murdered the poles rather than the Russians. Operation keelhaul was also kept secret as it was a death march of anti communist russians a,d black sea ethnic germans back to gulags. Even mentioning these facts sheep will come in out of the pasture to defend or excuse it. Or worse yet, try and deny it.
Pointing out the facts is not done to take sides, but rather to reveal truth.
The bombing of Dresden was a deliberate act of murder, designed to kill as many civilians as possible.
"The bombing of Dresden was a deliberate act of murder, designed to kill as many civilians as possible."
Whilst I wouldn't disagree with you, don't forget that Hitler was trying to achieve exactly the same goal by using his V1 - V2 'terror weapons' against civilian populations in the dying days of the war.
What would have had the R.A.F. and the U.S.A.F. do? if bombing any German city was a war crime .
A hard truth is that winners don't commit war crimes but losers often do.
Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but NOT GB
In case you didn't know here's a summary:
GB = Eng, Sco, Wales
UK = GB + NI
Too bad Stalin wasn't impressed enough to conform to those agreements......An amazing thing was how many Germans in 1945 believed that after Hitler was defeated, the Allies and the remnants of the German Army would unite and push the Russians back into Russia so they wouldn't enslave half of Europe. In retrospect it was a pretty good idea, and shows that some of "the enemy" knew who the real enemy was.....
The Russians withdrew from Austria ,and didn't stop the British interfering in the Greek civil war ,both of which were previous agreements.
Much of the way that war was fought would not be tolerated today, but with our more sanitized methods we can bring it anywhere in the world on the tip of a smart weapon. Not so sure that is progress.