SSED 317 Was the firebombing of Dresden morally justified? Matt Westphal
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1. Rationale
The aerial bombardment of Germany was a critical element of the Allied war effort during WWII, particularly for Britain and Canada. Vast amounts of manpower and matériel were devoted to it, and approximately 100,000 Allied airmen died in the campaign. So, too, did over 600,000 German civilians, and the high civilian death toll has lead to considerable ambivalence and discomfort about this aspect of the war. A particularly problematic case is that of the destruction of Dresden and the killing of 25,000-35,000 people in February 1945, when Germany’s defeat was but a matter of time. Was it necessary? Was it justifiable? Or, must we answer “yes” to Winston Churchill’s anguished question, “Are we beasts? Are we taking this too far?”
The examination of this issue fits most naturally into the WWII section of History 12, although it could also be used in the section of Social Studies 11 dealing with Canada’s involvement in the war. However, the time required (at least two lessons) might be considered disproportionate, given the breadth of the SS 11 curriculum, so History 12 would be the best fit.
2. Instructional objectives
By the end of these lessons, students will:
a) Understand why the Allies chose to bomb Dresden in February 1945;
b) Appreciate that the bombing of Dresden was controversial from the outset, and remains so today;
c) Determine, with reference to primary sources, what the relevant points of view about area bombing were at the time; and
d) Reach their own conclusions about whether the destruction of Dresden was morally justifiable, and demonstrate their reasoning in writing.
3.a) Lesson 1
[Note: before this lesson students will have been assigned two readings: the relevant passages in the textbook about the bombing campaign, and the “eyewitness account” (see below).]
i. Anticipatory set
On board or overhead, the following questions will be set out:
· What do you think “war crime” means?
· Is it ever justifiable to kill civilians in a war?
ii. Body of lesson
Time / Teacher Activity / Student Activity15 minutes / Introduce anticipatory set. After students have had chance to discuss, ask for their thoughts. Make clear that I am not expecting them to commit to a definitive position right now. Purpose right now is brainstorming, so I will put suggestions on the board. / Think-pair-share for a couple of minutes about the two questions, and then share with class as a whole.
20 minutes / Brief lecture on the background to the Allied bombing campaign, and reasons for bombing Dresden specifically at that time / Take notes, and ask questions as needed.
20 minutes / Provide students with photographs of Dresden: one from before the attacks, and two from after.
15 minutes / Introduce concept of moral judgments about the past, based on “The Moral Dimension” from Demos & Case, Teaching About Historical Thinking. Distribute “The Moral Dimension” worksheet (which I got from Peter Seixas). Key points:
· Dangerous to judge historical events solely with reference to our present values, beliefs, and hindsight, because might just be blaming past actors for not being like us, or not knowing what we now know.
· Equally dangerous to judge historical events solely with reference to the beliefs and values of that time, because that can just amount to moral relativism. (For example, I would suggest to them that something like the Holocaust is just plain wrong, even though Nazi leadership and many in the SS thought it was justified.)
· Thus, the challenge is to make our moral judgments with awareness of what the historical actors knew (or ought reasonably to have known) and believed, and apply our present values with some sensitivity to the context in which they operated.
At end, distribute remainder of primary sources, and students’ assignment for next class is to review them, and think about how they shed light on the moral issue.
3.b) Lesson 2
Time / Teacher Activity / Student Activity20 minutes / Show class an excerpt from the film Map of the Human Heart. One character is a bomb-aimer on a Lancaster, and the film contains a striking scene showing the bombing of Dresden. (There are some inaccuracies in the depiction, which can be pointed out to the class, but it still conveys some of the atmosphere, as well as what it would have been like for the bomber crews.)
40 minutes / Divide class into groups of 3 or 4. Instruct them to go over the documents they have been provided, and to see if they can fill in the “Moral Dimension” worksheet. Circulate and help students with questions. / Work in groups to analyze the documents and fill in worksheets.
10 minutes / Ask students to write down individually, on a scale of 1 to 10, whether they think the firebombing of Dresden was definitely morally justified (10), a war crime (1), or something in-between (indicating that some bombing was justified, but the specific tactics (area firebombing) were disproportionate, or, I suppose, that they just aren’t totally sure one way or the other).
Have students do a “line-up” exercise, to show where the class as a whole stands on this question. Ask some of the students their main reason for coming to the conclusion they did. / Think for a couple of minutes, and write down number.
Line up, sticking to what number they wrote down. (I may need to check to make sure they just aren’t clustering with their friends!)
Answer questions, as appropriate.
10 minutes / Students’ assignment is to explain their opinion of the morality of the firebombing of Dresden, in about 2 pages. I will expect them to make specific reference to the context in which the decision was made, and to opinions contained in the primary sources about bombing. If their views change between the “line-up” exercise and when they finish the assignment, that is fine.
[I would provide them with an assignment sheet and rubric, but alas, I have run out of time for the purposes of this assignment. Sorry!]
Give students an opportunity to ask any further questions about the issues or the assignment.
A possible extension exercise would be to bring this issue closer to the present by considering a modern example of bombing, such as the “shock and awe” phase of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, or the Israeli air assault on Lebanon last year (?). Although we no longer engage in area bombing, and have precision, GPS-guided “smart bombs”, no explosive is smart enough to let us avoid killing civilians entirely. Can such “collateral damage” be morally justified? If so, how much can there be, before it becomes unjustifiable?
Points to cover in mini-lecture on background of bombing campaign, and decision to target Dresden
During interwar period, widespread belief among military planners that bombing civilians would inevitably destroy the enemy’s morale, compelling them to surrender
Germans initiated the indiscriminate bombing of cities, in Poland in 1939, and in Rotterdam in 1940
In 1940, the air war between Britain and Germany escalated into the Blitz, when German bombers attacked London. Later that year, the Luftwaffe firebombed Coventry.
Initial RAF bombing efforts were relatively ineffective:
· Lack of effective aircraft, resulting in heavy losses (around 10% per raid) in daytime raids
· Discovered that only 1 in 5 bombers got its bombs within 5 miles of its target!
By 1942, RAF abandoned daytime, “precision” bombing, and switched to nighttime area bombing, in which bombers would target an area of a city near an industrial target
· Goals were to damage German war production and destroy civilian morale. In practice, this involved destroying housing and killing civilians. Other important factors were morale on the home front, and assisting allies:
o After fall of France in 1940, Britain was alone, and its only way of bring war to Germany was through bombing. Finding a way to fight back was critical to British morale.
o After invasion of Soviet Union in 1941, Soviet allies were bearing full brunt of German land assault. Since Allies would not be able to invade Europe until at least 1943 (and it was 1944 by time invaded Normandy), the only way for Britain and USA to help Soviets (apart from supplies) was to assault German homeland from the air.
Why Dresden?
· By February 1945, Britain, USA and Canada had reached German from the west, and Red Army had taken Central and Eastern Europe, and had advanced far into Germany. It was just a matter of time before Germany would be defeated.
· At Yalta conference in January 1945, Soviets requested bombing of targets in eastern Germany—particularly Dresden—to prevent Germans from carrying through on plan to transfer 500,000 soldiers from other fronts to face Red Army. Dresden was a key road and railway hub, and also had war industries. Britain and USA agreed.
The Firebombing of Dresden: An Eyewitness Account
Lothar Metzger, who was almost 10 years old at the time of the attacks, wrote the following account of his experience 55 years later, in 1999:It was February. 13th, 1945. I lived with my mother and sisters (13, 5 and 5 months old twins) in Dresden and was looking forward to celebrating my 10th birthday February l6th. My father, a carpenter, had been a soldier since 1939 and we got his last letter in August 1944. My mother was very sad to receive her letters back with the note: "Not to be found." We lived in a 3 room flat on the 4th floor in a working class region of our town. I remember celebrating Shrove Tuesday (February 13th) together with other children, The activities of the war in the east came nearer and nearer. Lots of soldiers went east and lots of refugees went west through our town or stayed there, also in the air raid night February13th/14th.
About 9:30 PM the alarm was given. We children knew that sound and got up and dressed quickly, to hurry downstairs into our cellar which we used as an air raid shelter. My older sister and I carried my baby twin sisters, my mother carried a little suitcase and the bottles with milk for our babies. On the radio we heard with great horror the news: "Attention, a great air raid will come over our town!" This news I will never forget.
Some minutes later we heard a horrible noise — the bombers. There were nonstop explosions. Our cellar was filled with fire and smoke and was damaged, the lights went out and wounded people shouted dreadfully. In great fear we struggled to leave this cellar. My mother and my older sister carried the big basket in which the twins were lain. With one hand I grasped my younger sister and with the other I grasped the coat of my mother.
We did not recognize our street any more. Fire, only fire wherever we looked. Our 4th floor did not exist anymore. The broken remains of our house were burning. On the streets there were burning vehicles and carts with refugees, people, horses, all of them screaming and shouting in fear of death. I saw hurt women, children, old people searching a way through ruins and flames.
We fled into another cellar overcrowded with injured and distraught men women and children shouting, crying and praying. No light except some electric torches. And then suddenly the second raid began. This shelter was hit too, and so we fled through cellar after cellar. Many, so many, desperate people came in from the streets. It is not possible to describe! Explosion after explosion. It was beyond belief, worse than the blackest nightmare. So many people were horribly burnt and injured. It became more and more difficult to breathe. It was dark and all of us tried to leave this cellar with inconceivable panic. Dead and dying people were trampled upon, luggage was left or snatched up out of our hands by rescuers. The basket with our twins covered with wet cloths was snatched up out of my mother’s hands and we were pushed upstairs by the people behind us. We saw the burning street, the falling ruins and the terrible firestorm. My mother covered us with wet blankets and coats she found in a water tub.
We saw terrible things: cremated adults shrunk to the size of small children, pieces of arms and legs, dead people, whole families burnt to death, burning people ran to and fro, burnt coaches filled with civilian refugees, dead rescuers and soldiers, many were calling and looking for their children and families, and fire everywhere, everywhere fire, and all the time the hot wind of the firestorm threw people back into the burning houses they were trying to escape from.
I cannot forget these terrible details. I can never forget them.
Now my mother possessed only a little bag with our identity papers. The basket with the twins had disappeared and then suddenly my older sister vanished too. Although my mother looked for her immediately it was in vain. The last hours of this night we found shelter in the cellar of a hospital nearby surrounded by crying and dying people. In the next morning we looked for our sister and the twins but without success. The house where we lived was only a burning ruin. The house where our twins were left we could not go in. Soldiers said everyone was burnt to death and we never saw my two baby sisters again.
Totally exhausted, with burnt hair and badly burnt and wounded by the fire we walked to the Loschwitz bridge where we found good people who allowed us to wash, to eat and to sleep. But only a short time because suddenly the second air raid began (February14th) and this house too was bombed and my mother’s last identity papers burnt. Completely exhausted we hurried over the bridge (River Elbe) with many other homeless survivors and found another family ready to help us, because somehow their home survived this horror.
In all this tragedy I had completely forgotten my l0th birthday. But the next day my mother surprised me with a piece of sausage she begged from the "Red Cross". This was my birthday present.
In the next days and weeks we looked for my older Sister but in vain. We wrote our present address on the last walls of our damaged house. In the middle of March we were evacuated to a little village near Oschatz and on March 3lst, we got a letter from my sister. She was alive! In that disastrous night she lost us and with other lost children she was taken to a nearby village. Later she found our address on the wall of our house and at the beginning of April my mother brought her to our new home.
You can be sure that the horrible experiences of this night in Dresden led to confused dreams, sleepless nights and disturbed our souls, me and the rest of my family. Years later I intensively thought the matter over, the causes, the political contexts of this night. This became very important for my whole life and my further decisions.
The Moral Dimension