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Dresden, Tuesday, 13 February 1945. By Frederick Taylor. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0-7475-7078-7. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xxi, 522. £16.00.
Readers should not be misled by the title of this massive work. Far from an account of two catastrophic days in February 1945, the book surveys the whole history of the city of Dresden from its thirteenth-century foundation to the recent turn of the century post-Communist years, a comprehensive overall story which Taylor has thoroughly researched and sets out vividly.
Obviously leading up to the great destruction of the British and American air raids, Taylor provides us with necessary reminders of several matters which in controversy and discourse over the raids have not been given the weight they deserve. Firstly, Taylor describes, in all its nastiness, the enthusiasm with which the vast majority of the citizens of Dresden welcomed and supported the Nazi government, and turned their eyes away from its increasing excesses, in particular the persecution of the Jewish members of the community. Secondly, he points out, well backed with detail, the fact that peri-urban Dresden did constitute a justifiable military target for bombing: numerous factories in the city's suburbs were...