Michael Gorey

I’ve received a couple of spam emails in German lately about the Allied bombing of Dresden in early 1945. The emails are sincerely written, state cold facts and don’t moralise except to criticise the subsequent silence of the German government and media.

I must say I’ve always been troubled about the bombing of Dresden. I can more easily accept the dropping atom bombs on Japan, which was holding out unreasonably in the closing stages of the war.

I think most people knew that Germany would eventually capitulate by the time Dresden was bombed into submission. Most analysts would also have known that the attack was unlikely to change Nazi attitudes at the top level. It may even have enraged the moderates and delayed peace.

Was it a war crime? History is written by the winners and that’s part of what troubles me. If it was a war crime it could never be prosecuted because the orders came from high command.

I look similarly at Lord Kitchener’s scorched earth policy in South Africa at the end of the Boer War, where thousands perished in unsanitary concentration camps.

Edit: I’ve just read in The Age that the rise in German spam is linked to a worm, so be cautious when reading them and don’t follow any links.

These articles might be of interest:

• Lunch with Mussolini
• Desert Island reading
• Web site spam