Dresden 1945 : how many were killed in the bombing?

[@iainmcintosh9068]

Of course the loss of life and suffering is the worst thing about war but being a lover of architecture the destruction of medieval buildings, towns etc also saddens me .

[@HistoryonYouTube]

I agree, me too.

[@tomweickmann6414]

Wow. You keep opening my eyes to aspects of the war I never gave any thought to. Thank You Sir.

[@388Caroline]

Mine too 🥺

[@aliedil5415]

open them some more: "I do not want to receive any suggestions how we can destroy militarily important targets in Dresden's hinterland, I want to get suggestions how we can fry 600,000 refugees from Breslau in Dresden." - Winston Churchill

[@untermench3502]

When I was in the Navy, my ship stopped in Hamburg for a few days, so it allowed us to see the sights. I went on a bus tour of the city, and on the trip the guide was pointing out the sights..he said "..and this monument is to all the Hamburgers that burned in WWII" Everyone started laughing, and at first he looked hurt, but then he realized the double meaning and started laughing too.

[@rogerfawcus4592]

'ad me laarfin' too !!!

[@geibenbedivan3433]

My grandmother passed Dresden as a refugee. My mother walked on her hand. They had to go by foot like the most refugees, not by train. Fortunately they were about 50 kilometers away from Dresden when the bombing started. Otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this now. It took her many years to talk about it. She told me, the day after the bombing ash was raining and the sweet smell of human flesh was in the air. When they went through Dresden she faced horrors I don’t dare to describe since it confuses me still. The refugees were told to pass and not to stay in Dresden. I appreciate your reports very much. In this clip I was irritated about your categoric statements. Yes, Nazi Germany committed crimes in a scale which was unique in history. But this is not an excuse to bomb a city, knowing that women and children will be killed- the war was already lost and there’s no military or any other reason to do this. It’s not a matter of the quantities of dead people- thousands or many thousands- this discussion I never understood. And yes, the Germans feared revenge and had good reason to do this, as you mentioned. But can this be an excuse for raping and murdering on civilians? Is it from an ethic point of view less criminal? Please continue your outstanding good work and thanks for your engagement that might help to open eyes and make the world a little bit better. And excuse my terrible english.

[@SGTDuckButter]

Just so you know, My Uncle was a tail gunner on a B17 and he was part of the bombing of Dresden, it bothered him to the day he died. War hurts everyone involved in some way.

[@daviddoran3673]

Your English is fine.

[@jamallabarge2665]

A firestorm is a real thing. The center of the fire draws up air, creating a suction around the edges. Many were smothered by the fire storm, which removed the oxygen from the air. They had gone to air raid shelters. They could not breathe. One freakish thing were sudden gusts of wind. People would be trying not to be pulled by the wind, then they would be snatched up, into the fire while screaming. A firestorm is a real thing. The center of the fire draws up air, creating a suction around the edges. The bodies were stacked in squares, then burned.

[@bigtrev8xl]

There's only one cause of the bombing, and that was the nazi party, they could of stopped the bombing at anytime, but as we know, they chose not to

[@geibenbedivan3433]

@@bigtrev8xl This consequent, but brutal logic leads to hate and vengeance. As empathy, mercy and humanity was also the biggest enemy of the Nazis. With this understanding the Nazis would have send me to a concentration camp. You would have bombed me?

[@johnmcloughlin5275]

I am still curious as to where the figure 25000-35000 came from? Immediately after the bombing the Germans claimed a very high number which has been dubbed as false by most historians, but i am curious to know how the new number was worked out. If we assume as you have stated that the city was not overflowing with refugees then the population of the city would have a population close to the pre war estimate of 640000 in 1939 worked out by the German federal statistical office based on the census results from 1933 which recorded a population of 631964. If you have a city of 64000 people and 60-80% of the city gets destroyed in a single night by firebombing how do only 4%(25000) of the people die. This is especially strange when the most populated areas were the worst hit. Im not trying to say anything is true or false i am just trying to learn how different historians have made their conclusions to work out an accurate number.

[@HistoryonYouTube]

I have done a video explaining the methodology of the victim count which I will upload soon.

[@glendalyelias1222]

Thank you very much for your community service. Your videos are an excellent learning tool. Merry Christmas!!!

[@HistoryonYouTube]

Thank you very much for watching!

[@achord9204]

considering my family was murdered by the germans it is hard to feel empathy for their tragedy. Had the war continued even another day,I would not have been. My father was in Ebensee and was so weak and ill he couldn't even walk. so as far as being concerned goes I Thank G-d the germans lost the war.

[@lindakay9552]

I really hope you're placing that blame towards nazis and not all Germans in general.

[@HistoryonYouTube]

As I do too. I find it quite sickening to see neo Nazis today with their swastika like insignia, giving the Hitler salute and blaming Germany - a modern, liberal, democratic society for what happened 80 years ago.

[@lindakay9552]

@@HistoryonKZbin it's a really touchy subject for me. Virtually all my ancestors are from various parts of Germany. I'm waiting on DNA test results, but I suspect I'm at least 90% German. However, all my ancestors were in America long before Hitler was even born. Those German immigrants who came to America, fought with the Allies. I've had at least one ancestor in American wars all the way back to the Revolution. And those same Germans were instrumental in helping found settlements all over the east coast of America. I detest when it is infered that the Germans caused the war. Not every German is a Nazi. And not every Nazi was a German

[@HistoryonYouTube]

@@lindakay9552 Hitler was not a German for starters. He was an Austrian.

[@lindakay9552]

@History on KZbin I could not have possibly had any idea where this video would be headed. But I have to thank you Alan, for saying "Hitler's war led German people.." Not only are you a legit historian, but incredibly empathetic. Your linguistic styling proves you to be highly contemplative and intellectual! 💙

[@daviddoran3673]

The American author Kurt Vonnegut was a POW in Dresden during the atrocity...he later wrote a "novel" about it called "Slaughterhouse 9" if my memory serves me well. ....

[@jamallabarge2665]

yeah, it was slaughterhouse 9. He was tasked with handling cadavers. Allegedly the US and British never touched the tank farm outside of Dresden. The storage tanks were owned by an affiliate of Standard Oil. Pilots who questioned "do not bomb" orders sometimes were pulled from discussions and never seen again. They were probably given ground duty some where.

[@letoubib21]

Yeah, right, a novel, But not a documentary *. . .*

[@kieranororke620]

Slaughterhouse Five was the title, named after the building in which he and other POWs were quartered and managed to survive the inferno.

[@kieranororke620]

@@jamallabarge2665 'Allegedly' is the key term there.

[@stevenkreiss2113]

That is correct.

[@etangdescygnes]

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, published Frederick Taylor’s thoroughly researched and definitive book "Dresden: Tuesday 13 February 1945" in hardback in 2004 and paperback in 2005, (over 600 pages including preface, plates and refs). Taylor studied the city during the Nazi era, events leading to its bombing, the bombing itself, and its aftermath in great detail. Dresden city council then appointed an official commission of historians and other experts to examine the issue in depth. It concluded that at most, 25,000 people died due to the bombing of 13 and 13 February 1945. See: www.dresden.de/en/city/07/03/historical_commission.php Pages 264-266 of Taylor’s book assess how many refugees were in the city when it was bombed. For many reasons this is difficult. Dresden was a transport hub, a key reason for its bombing. Dresden was also a major railway junction. The militarily important rail targets were the big Friedrichstadt railway marshalling yards and freight station, the Hauptbahnhof, and Wettiner station, and Dresden’s Festival Hall was serving as an SS barracks. As the Red Army advanced, refugees from the Eastern Front swarmed through Dresden’s stations and roads, most on their way elsewhere. Taylor reckons about 1 million did so “in the weeks before the bombing”, but only up to 200,000 remained in Dresden, due to limited housing and food. Many buildings in the city centre were already damaged, and others were commercial. The vast majority of refugees who stayed, lived in unbombed districts outside the city centre, especially suburbs that survived 13/14 February. Most households only accepted one refugee, often a relative. A witness of the working day before the bombing states that Dresden’s streets and parks were normally busy, but the Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) was packed with refugees. By 1945 Nazi Germany had a total war economy, in which many businesses in all towns supported the military effort. Frederick Taylor proved Dresden was no exception: the 1944 handbook of the German High Command’s Weapons Office used 3-letter codes for 127 Dresden firms that supplied Germany’s armed forces. Only significant suppliers had 3-letter codes. The firms used hundreds of slaves from the Flossenbürg, Bergen-Belsen, and Hellerberg concentration/genocide camps. By the end of 1943 already, at least 12,500 foreigners from Nazi-occupied countries were in Dresden as forced labourers. Among the Dresden companies were: Zeiss-Ikon (all kinds of optical and aiming equipment and rifle cartridges for the German army, navy, and air force), Deutsche Werkstätte Hellerau, (wooden tails for Luftwaffe aircraft), the Seidel and Neumann Armaments Factory, Radio-Mende (military field telephones, knapsack radios, two-way radios, army teleprinters, artillery observation equipment, aircraft electrical fuses), AG für Cartonageindustrie (packing boxes and crates for military goods), Infesto-Works (steering components for torpedoes, aircraft, and U-boats), Gläserkarrosserie GmbH Fabrik III (parts of Messerschmitt aircraft), Brückner, Kanis & Co. (naval turbines), and Sachsenwerk (sundry military electrical equipment).

[@johnroddy8756]

In reality the War was lost by 1943 at this time in the War Totally unnecessary ,if it saved just one innocent life,It would have been worth holding off.

[@daviddoran3673]

The war ended in June 1944 with Operation Bagration which destroyed army group centre.

[@johnroddy8756]

@@daviddoran3673 I sure your Correct, From 43 the Germans were in retreat,from the Russian Juggernaut.The writing was on the Wall.What was Done to Dresden was appalling.Somevthing the Nazi's would Do.The Allies should have been bigger then That, especially in such a late Date.

[@roguedalek900]

Hindsight is always 20-20. But when bullets are flying? Not so much.

[@lindakay9552]

I feel almost embarrassed whenever you post a video on a specific facet of WWII that I really know nothing about. Of course, I've heard the name Dresden hundreds of times. But never had any idea why. As myself, being more of an early American historian (especially Civil War,) all European war epochs are more of a side hobby study for me. I never had any idea how many sides there were to WWII. All your research and production efforts are greatly appreciated! After I finish the video, I'll be jumping through a rabbit hole to Dresden. 💜

[@dr.wilfriedhitzler1885]

The allied bombardements were so devastating, you can see this in almoust every city of our fatherland. And now we have the bombardement with millions of no working muslims, never ever fitting here. Its enough, Miss.

[@sandraobrien8705]

The German refugees from the East were generally not welcome. From what some of them told me having arrived in what was West Germany near Cologne, North Germany near the Danish border or Berlin, they were referred to as Polacken (derogatory name for Pole) and made to feel unwelcome.

[@HistoryonYouTube]

I have heard this as well from people in Germany although from second hand reports. Those in the west who had been bombed were sometimes resentful of those in the east who had not been until very late in the war.

[@williamgardiner4956]

"Bomber Harris" (Air Marshall RAF) said on the attacks on Britain by the Luftwaffe "they have sown the wind and now they shall sow the whirlwind" and the Brits made them suffer beyond belief along with the Americans.

[@ted1091]

An admission that the bombings were revenge attacks on civilians.

[@jamallabarge2665]

US Studies conducted by the US Air Force indicated that strategic bombing does not demoralize a population. They tend to rally together. After the Korean campaign of the 1950s the US never again conducted mass attacks on civilians. In North Vietnam we focused on military targets, even during the Linebacker raids. In the South and in Laos? I'm going to retire at this point. It's embarrassing.

[@mikebellis5713]

If Germany had won, Harris would've been hung in the Tower of London for crimes against humanity

[@calc1657]

Strategic bombing forced Germany to devote vast resources to defend the sky over the country. Strategic bombing worked.

[@ted1091]

@@calc1657 you're not paying attention to the facts of the Dresden bombings. Particularly the second wave on February 14 which was aimed at injured civilians and first responders.the city was already destroyed. It was an unspeakable war crime

[@georgebrown8312]

It is very sad and horrendous that thousands lost their lives in the bombing of Dresden, Germany, but when war breaks out, as it did in Europe, there will be civilian casualties. It should be remembered also that the bombings were a direct result of the hate and warped ideologies that Hitler and his Nazi regime had unleashed upon Europe, although this comment is not to excuse the destruction of Dresden or the killing of its people.

[@HistoryonYouTube]

I could not agree more George!

[@ted1091]

The narrator implies that the bombing was the result of the Russian advance. In fact it was conducted by the RAF and the US. As in Hamburg, the bombers dropped incendiaries designed to ignite everything (including people). They also dropped white phosphorus. The sparks ignite everything also. People literally melted, on fire, into liquified asphalt. There is no question about who started WWII, or the fact that nazism had to be defeated. What's missing here is that the British waited until the following morning and followed with a second wave of bombing intended to kill the wounded and injured, and firefighters engaged in trying to quell the flames. A British war crime if ever there was directed at civilians.

[@endofwatch5727]

The man in charge of this war crime was "Sir" Arthur Harris named "Bomber Harris" British Air Force Marshall, he was knighted after the war and has a sculpture in London to his name. Same goes for the pilots, dropping the atomic bombs onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the firebombing of Tokyo - were considered heroes - Germans were rightfully hanged for similar war crimes - Vae victis!

[@daviddoran3673]

Yes...this series of attacks were a war crime..an atrocity.

[@JesterEric]

Dresden contained 127 factories and was an important unbombed industrial city. At Yalta the Russians requested bombing to interdict the flow of reinforcements to the Eastern Front. The RAF obliged in part to show the power of their bomber fleet on a city that was going to be part of the Russian occupation zone

[@ted1091]

@@JesterEric The bombing raid didn't target industrial points. It targeted civilian areas. That's precisely what the British were doing when they and the USAF returned the following morning- they targeted injured civilians and firefighters.

[@ted1091]

The nazis deserved no sympathy, but neither did/do others who committed war crimes. The British love WWII because it took the focus off of the Atlantic slave trade and the occupation of India and South Africa.

[@johnwright291]

I've always thought of the Dresden bombing as unessisary and a war crime because it was so late in the war. But recently I have learned that the russians were approaching the city and that the germans had moved a lot of there armaments there. So given that it was germany who attacked russia without a word of warning I'm kind of thinking now that that's the way it goes.

[@blorblor5438]

By this logic you can justify every war crime. Bombing civilians is ruthless murder, youre right thats the way our world goes but please dont give in to the cynical "eye for an eye logic"

[@johnwright291]

@@blorblor5438 what I was suggesting is that by bombing Dresden it made it less hazardous for the Russians who were knocking on the door an who invaded who in a extremely chicken shit manner not to mention they had no business going there in the first place.

[@johnwright291]

@@blorblor5438 and I forgot to say that I don't understand your logic in saying my logic could justify any war crime. It just simply couldn't justify people being transported to camps and murdering them. Since the nazis were the aggressor I'm OK with anything that would put them out of business sooner.

[@blorblor5438]

So it would be ok for native americans to bomb the cities of european settlers in america because they are the aggressors? The nazis themselves justified their murder of jews, poles, russians and whoever they declared to have done the "german people" wrong with the same arguments. Keeping up this line of thought will only continue to spin the wheel of violence in our world.

[@johnwright291]

@@blorblor5438 so let me get this straight. You feel the Russians should have gone into Dresden which was heavily defended an try to arrest the germans and take them all prisoners. Do I have that right. If so you live in a world of make believe.

[@remarkableshailesh]

been to Dresden . Now totally reconstructed . Missed the Mughal court artefact inside the green room. Although reconstructed and looks brand new Dresden there is allways that charm in old things . As they say is old is gold.

[@clarkewi]

I feel for the German people as I am of German/American ancestry. But the German people brought Hitler into power and they can thank him and his government for the horrific fate.

[@HistoryonYouTube]

At its very maximum 37% of the voters, voted Nazi. That means that at the very least, 63% of those bothering to vote did not.

[@colinpowis3600]

@@HistoryonKZbin There was almost 43% in the 33 elections , the same percentage of Americans that elected bill Clinton in 1992 ; moreover, it's pure fantasy to try and claim that because only a minority of folks supported the nazis in 1933, then only a minority were ever Nazis ; the fact is that the Nazi regime by appearing to be successful won millions of converts and If Hitler had died in early 1939 he'd have gone down in history as the most popular German leader EVER ...furthermore , one of the main reasons why the Nazis never had an electoral majority was because there were about 27 political parties in Weimar Germany , but still they were the largest single party in the Reichstag

[@daviddoran3673]

Most contemporary historians agree that about 28.000 humans died in the atrocity.

[@colinpowis3600]

Way too high , less than half of that 10-12 K MAX

[@pierren___]

@@colinpowis3600 way too low, minimum 28k

[@daviddoran3673]

The city was effectively "demilitarised" before the bombings and had no AAA cover....many POWS were also in the vicinity.

[@letoubib21]

This city was the last main traffic junction in the east, and so a legit target *. . .*

[@sobelou]

@@letoubib21 BS. There was nothing of military value going through Dresden at this time. And the main railway station was only slightly damaged and again operational in a couple of days. It was a totally useless and unnecessary last hurrah for the Harris doctrine ,and one that helped Soviet and East German propaganda against the West in the following years.

[@letoubib21]

@@sobelou Nevertheless it did be an important target. Btw., it was *the* wish of the SU, from Dresden the "Festung Breslau" got its supplies *. . .*

[@mikebellis5713]

Germany was in its death throws. So what was the point? To burn alive women and children?

[@letoubib21]

@@mikebellis5713 On the 15th of April U.S. troups were still bleeding out at the Orscholzriegel. On the 15th of April su troups were bleeding out in the Fortress Breslau. On the 15th of April U.S. troups still had to fight for the Ruhrkessel. On the 15th of April British troups were still fighting in the Reichswald. On the 15th of April even the infamous Remagen bridge wasn't captured yet. That was all what the Allied supreme command was knowing on that day, still fiercest fightings everywhere *. . .*

[@cheapcraftygirlsweepstakes2338]

My great grandfather was born and raised in Berlin. My grand babies are Jewish. Dresden needed to be leveled.

[@elyjane6078]

That winter was severe, people who were, essentially,homeless, would not have survived in the open.

[@aliedil5415]

"I do not want to receive any suggestions how we can destroy militarily important targets in Dresden's hinterland, I want to get suggestions how we can fry 600,000 refugees from Breslau in Dresden." - Winston Churchill

[@HistoryonYouTube]

Churchill did not say that, you made it up.

[@letoubib21]

Uh-oh, a real hornets' nest *. . .*

[@christopherfritz3840]

A bit disappointed with this one. The brutality of the raid and the controversial disposition (WChurchills bloodlust) of whether the city WAS critical as a target is.. conveniently.. dismissed. How about the VAST numbers of children who were killed or how it was all about giving Stalin a.. 'gift'. Never mind.....😑

[@HistoryonYouTube]

Christopher this is just about the number of victims not an account of everything surrounding the raid.

[@rosesandsongs21]

The number of victims of that insanity is directly related on the side from which the speaker stands. These bombings had nothing to do with the war, civilians had always been protected to various degrees in war but in WW2, this was the result of Churchill having no other way to do anything else to respond to Stalin's demands, the Butt Report having revealed that only one out of 5 planes could get to 5 miles from the designated target. Bonbing Berlin 314 times lies with insanity, not a valid war tactic. New documents came out recently from the city herself but I don't have a copy yet. What you are doing seems logical but it is not backed up by hard evidence and honestly, would seem very disrespectful of the victims of that incomprehensible butchery.

[@HistoryonYouTube]

I have provided you with the evidence, it is up to you to counter it with additional proof (if such exists).

[@rosesandsongs21]

@@HistoryonKZbin Words are not evidence but I can recognize your effort indeed. Very well, I will go through my files and come back to you as soon as possible, I have a huge dossier on Dresden indeed. Thank you.

[@rosesandsongs21]

@@HistoryonKZbin Marshall De Bruhl states in his book "Firestorm: Allied Airpower and the Destruction of Dresden": Nearly every apartment and house [in Dresden] was crammed with relatives or friends from the east; many other residents had been ordered to take in strangers. There were makeshift campsites everywhere. Some 200,000 Silesians and East Prussians were living in tents or shacks in the Grosser Garten. The city’s population was more than double its prewar size. Some estimates have put the number as high as 1.4 million. Unlike other major German cities, Dresden had an exceptionally low population density, due to the large proportion of single houses surrounded by gardens. Even the built-up areas did not have the congestion of Berlin and Munich. However, in February 1945, the open spaces, gardens, and parks were filled with people. The Reich provided rail transport from the east for hundreds of thousands of the fleeing easterners, but the last train out of the city had run on February 12. Transport further west was scheduled to resume in a few days; until then, the refugees were stranded in the Saxon capital.

[@rosesandsongs21]

@@HistoryonKZbin Frederick Taylor states in his book "Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945" that Dresden had been accepting refugees from the devastated cities of the Ruhr, and from Hamburg and Berlin, ever since the British bombing campaign began in earnest. By late 1943 Dresden was already overstretched and finding it hard to accept more outsiders. By the winter of 1944-1945, hundreds of thousands of German refugees were traveling from the east in an attempt to escape the Russian army.[9] The German government regarded the acceptance of Germans from the east as an essential duty. Der Freiheitskampf, the official German organ for Saxony, urged citizens to offer temporary accommodation: There is still room everywhere. No family should remain without guests! Whether or not your habits of life are compatible, whether the coziness of your domestic situation is disturbed, none of these things should matter! At our doors stand people who for the moment have no home-not even to mention the loss of their possessions.

[@rosesandsongs21]

@@HistoryonKZbin The report prepared by the USAF Historical Division Research Studies Institute Air University states that “there may probably have been about 1,000,000 people in Dresden on the night of the 13/14 February RAF attack.” The 1 million population figure cited in this report constitutes a realistic and conservative minimum estimate of Dresden’s population during the Allied bombings of February 13-14, 1945. Therefore if we estimate the local population to be around 600,000 people that would leave a refugee estimate of 400,000 people. Most would have been located within the designated destrucion area but not all, many were on the outskirts of town, waiting for their transport further west.

[@daisyb333]

Did the Ford Motor Company sue the American government , after the war , for damages to their "assets" in Germany & is it true that the engines in the Panzer tanks were American design and manufacture ? Thanks.

[@HistoryonYouTube]

No and no.

[@jean-lucliens4915]

there were also thousands of forced labourers in Dresden (my uncle was one of them). But that's not the question. It's the same tactics that holocaust deniers use to put in doubt the holocaust itself. 50.000 civilian victims or 500.000, it still remain war crimes with the only goal to test the public opinion in the homeland to see how they would react to the dropping of a nuclear bomb. And the hate and crimes of a regime doesn't justify that you can use the same means to combat them. You just lower yourself to the same level as your enemy. It's just because history is always written by the victors that these atrocities were not condemned.

[@brianford8493]

I agree with you....I saw a great documentary years age when a USAF B17 pilot returned to Germany and spoke to one of the German firechiefs who had a photo album of 45.....the pilot totally broke down and said "I had no idea!"......blew my mind.....what did he think they were doing?....keep up the great work.....ta!

[@ciarandoyle4349]

This video makes the case that there were not very many German refugees in Dresden during the air raids of February 1945. The words "would have" and "would not have" are used, but descriptions of actual events are lacking. I would suggest that the author of the video take account of the following points: The Silesian Germans fled their homes in their hundreds of thousands in January/February 1945 ahead of the Red Army. Dresden was directly in their path. So, there are three basic possibilities: (1) The German authorities diverted the refugees around the outside of the city (2) The authorities passed them through the city very quickly in fairly small groups. (3) The authorities were unable to prevent the accumulation of large groups of refugees within the city as they tried (in the midst of administrative disintegration) to organise their onward movement to South and West. If this is what happened, then large numbers of refugees inevitably perished in the bombing. It seems to me that in order to make the case for (1) or (2) you have to find out where the hundreds of thousands of refugees went, and to account for: (a) The original Silesian German population. (b) Losses of refugees en route (cold and snow, overtaken by the Red Army, etc). (c) The displaced Silesian German population within Germany after the war. (Those who made it through/around Dresden.) (d) Either (a) = (b) + (c), or a number must be added to account for refugees killed in Dresden.

[@HistoryonYouTube]

Or you maybe people from Silesia did not come to Dresden at all. Or perhaps they were invisible to those that lived there which would explain why the military authorities did not move them on and did not eat anything which would explain why there were not hundreds of thousands of ration cards issued.

[@ciarandoyle4349]

@@HistoryonKZbin You seem to prefer possibility (1), that the German authorities diverted the refugees around the outside of Dresden. Then preusmably the authorities (on the verge of collapse) attempted to provide supplies to the diverted refugees, leaving someadministrative/ historical/archival record. Or do you think there were very few refugees and that the Silesian Germans (not just those in Breslau, Glogau, etc.) just stayed at home, waiting to be engulfed by the advancing Red Army.

[@HistoryonYouTube]

@@ciarandoyle4349 So if I have understood you correctly, you are claiming that those people who departed from Wrocław, Opole, Głogów etc. were part of some organised evacuation?

[@ciarandoyle4349]

@@HistoryonKZbin Disorganised. But the Germans always took the attitude of "thy brother's keeper towards each other. That's why they fought for so long and why so many German Silesians now live within the modern borders of Germany.

[@jorgeferreira3603]

Poor excuse for the Brits who bombed the city and committed a pointless and useless war crime, which has never been publicly recognized, accepted and punished!

[@rogerfawcus4592]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6bNq4mnrK-heJI Get real Jorge-- Germans embarked on a war of mass extermination...they got one.

[@roguedalek900]

Don't start wars you can't finish

[@Steve14ps]

Germans bombed Coventry, they also bombed Rotterdam after the Dutch surrender! What about the murders in Oradour and Lidice? It is easy to say now in hindsight what a terrible event the bombing of Dresden was. At the time with the war dragging on for over five years, the liberation of many concentration camps and the uncertainty of how far the Germans may have developed nuclear weaponry, there was very little sympathy for the German nation, the Allies wanted an end to this terrible conflict whatever the cost. Fear of the unknown brought about this, could the Germans not have surrendered earlier than they did

[@colinpowis3600]

War crimes ; what country are you from ?

[@andrewcarroll2162]

Re Dresden Bombing 💣

[@zillsburyy1]

slaughterhouse 5

[@kevinmoor26]

Too bad no nukes were available then.

[@colinpowis3600]

Too true ; it's a pity the Allies didn't have them a year earlier in July 44 .. there'd be no more ''heil Hitler'' after that

[@kevinmoor26]

@@colinpowis3600 It is always horrible when innocent people die during war, but war is insane an the people running them are insane. Watch Putin not invade Ukraine. The Leaders of the Western are those who were unable to find employment as labourers. They bleat like sheep, some even shit themselves, but they are mostly incompentent and sometimes corrupt.