Anonymous [why are these people afraid to give their names....] just accused me of playing "fast and loose" with the facts about Irving's statements regarding the Dresden death toll and falsely claiming that he charges that the death toll was 250,000.
Just to ease Anonymous' concerns let me offer him/her the following information: In 1989 with all the contradictory information (from people such as Theo Miller who was there and was responsible for burning the bodies) about death tolls in Dresden in his hands, Irving told reporters “we burned Dresden... killing between 100,000 and 250,000.” [This was at the news conference launching the UK publication of the Leuchter Report.]
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Deborah, do you think that, it Frederick Taylor had risked imprisonment for questioning the number of deaths in Dresden, he would have published his book in the first place? Maybe I should call him a "Dresden denier" in the hope that he will sue me.
In Prof. Lipstadt's post on the 60th Anniversary of the Dresden bombing, she notes, "Holocaust deniers and other extremists, who care little about the facts, will be unmoved, as Irving has been unmoved by all the contradictory evidence that has come his way." It is true that there is contradictory evidence regarding the death toll at Dresden. Alfred M. de Zayas in his book, "Nemesis at Potsdam" writes "estimates range from 25,000 to 400,000." Still, he is able to suggest that the air attacks "killed well over 100,000 persons." Can estimates be made even with an awareness of contradictory evidence? Do such estimates suggest ulterior motives? Writing on the topic of the Holocaust, Arno J. Mayer in his "Why Did the Heavens not Darken?" explains, "there is no denying the many contradictions, ambiguities, and errors in the existing sources." He continues, "Much the same is true for the conflicting estimates and extrapolations of the numbers of victims, since there are no reliable statistics to work with." Does such contradictory evidence regarding the Holocaust leave authors on the subject unmoved? Perhaps they care little about the facts...
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