Re: Jewish Attitudes to Dresden Bombing

On Thu, 5 Apr 2007 15:32:09 +0000 (UTC), Matt Silberstein
<RemoveThisPrefixmatts2nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I did not say "by living in Dresden."

So how did the parents of children in Dresden, those children who were
burned alive, put their children in harms way?

Matt, if I could step in here for a moment, I think you two are
talking at cross purposes: the issue of guilt isn't geography but
politics. The National Socialists, while not receiving an actual
majority in '33, did enjoy widespread support from the German public.
I still find it astonishing when Germans both in the military and
without recount being shocked and disheartened by Hitler's suicide,
amid a nation crumbling about them. I think that is what is meant by
placing the children in harm's way.

I've argued here in the past that the idea of war sparing
non-combatants is a fantasy, quite a widespread one, too. And, in many
instances, there is no clear-cut good guy. But Germany did bring war
to the rest of Europe and had to face the consequences.

I will say, too, that I appreciate the points you're trying to make,
even if I don't agree with them fully. Dresden was and remains
controversial, and rightly so. One of the most trenchant ironies of
the raid was that it was planned largely to support Soviet advances
from the East and to hamper Germany's ability to reinforce their
eastern front, yet both Germany during the war and the USSR after the
war cited Dresden in anti-western propaganda.

The context of the discussion
has been the guilt and responsibility of the Germans for the Nazi
regime.

The context was the firebombing of Dresden and whether or not it was
morally acceptable to burn civilians to death.


Don't forget, too, that Dresden wasn't hit with more bombs than other
German cities. Its construction mostly of wood frames, with deep
connecting cellars, lent itself to conflagration--though of course
fire bombing the city *and* hampering relief efforts were also part of
the Allied plan.

The German people, by supporting the regime, the war, the
genocide of the Jewish people, put their children in harm's way.

*Some* supported the war and the Shoah. Some looked the other way. And
most were just people living in a country in the midst of a war.

Well, of course that leaves us with how one defines "some";-)

Andy Katz
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: James Bacque
    ... >> American and French camps by taking a close look at two ... >> Prisoner of War Temporary Enclosures in Heilbronn. ... Try the German economy and society collapsed in 1945, ... foreigners or PoWs. ...
    (soc.history.war.world-war-ii)
  • Re: B-17s flew missions over wartime Europe
    ... Luftwaffe since the Red Army destroyed most of the German Army ... of so many pre war pilots had a real effect over the course of the war. ... It was in fact these attacks which caused the breakdown of the ... So apparently we have to ignore all 8th Air Force raids before this ...
    (rec.aviation.military)
  • Trials, Jews and Nazis
    ... Trials, Jews and Nazis ... The "war crimes trials," which the victors in World War II conducted, ... German and Austrian cities in the early spring of 1960 (just before ...
    (soc.culture.israel)
  • Re: THE GREAT CRUSADE
    ... they were in condition to wage war. ... Three-quarters of the German army continued to rely on more traditional ... Soviet Union with somewhere between 600,000 and 740,000 horses. ... During Barbarossa, German coal production was down 15% with no stocks, and was to reach 25%. ...
    (soc.history.war.world-war-ii)
  • Re: Britain and US acting against Russia
    ... all in a German victory", ... The above is a very common justification for going to war. ... Ludendorff knew that increasing numbers of Americans were arriving, ... The Allies wanted justice (as they defined it, ...
    (soc.history.war.world-war-ii)