Vonnegut was a fiction writer. The actual number killed in the Dresden bombing was a lot closer to 25,000 and probably not over 35,000. Which is still a lot of people.
“Vonnegut was a fiction writer. The actual number killed in the Dresden bombing was a lot closer to 25,000 and probably not over 35,000. Which is still a lot of people.”
And the entire city of Dresden was not destroyed; but four square miles of the city center sure as hell was (which bore the brunt of the firestorm).
There’s a good book on this raid titled “The Fire and the Darkness,” by Sinclair McKay; which I just happened to have read not too long ago. His source put the number at 25,000 civilians killed in that raid. There are other books on this raid, many of which I’ve read. I remember the figure 22,000 being mentioned in another book. Perhaps more eventually died because of their injuries, which would increase the total number dead claimed to something north of 25,000.
It was a horrific attack. And yet, it was not the worst firebombing of the war: The firebombing of Japan killed between 80,000 and 100,000 in one night.