I've read about the misconceptions around the Bombing of Dresden. Casualties, the reasoning behind the bombing, etc. And I learned that many of these untrue claims originated from Nazi propaganda directly after the bombing. But many of these claims are now taught in western schools and widely believed. How did what started as literal Nazi propaganda work it's way into schools?
There are two authors that are responsible for this inflated number of deaths: Kurt Vonnegut and David Irving.
Kurt Vonnegut is the author of Slaughterhouse Five a book which features the bombing of Dresden and he also was there during the bombing as a captured US soldier there. The book is well written and a great read if you get a chance to pick it up, but the bombing of Dresden part is written as a ground zero victim. It really makes the bombing seem like it was hell on Earth and it was to the people on the ground. But there are death tolls in the book that are not based on fact and there was a lot of assumptions made. Though I have heard that he has apologized for this and for profiting off of Dresden but I can’t find a source to confirm this.
David Irving was the man to write the book the Destruction Of Dresden which many people used as a source. However he has been discredited as a source for this bombing and many mainstream historians brush him off. The reason the book got discredited was for a forged document named TB-47 which was a police report of the bombing of Dresden. He supposedly found this and used it as the source of the casualties for the bombing. Irving also tried to make the document legitimate by saying a Deputy Chief Medical Officer Funfack was the one who wrote it. But in reality Dr Funfack was not the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Dresden, but a urologist and just a bystander. The real TB-47 document popped up in the late 60s and it showed that the death toll wasn’t even close to what Irving was supporting. Close to 25,000-35,000 rather than 125,000-350,000 that Irving claims. Irving however still claims his forged document is the true source.
So we can see that culturally Kurt influenced many minds about the bombing of Dresden but it was through his eyes and first hand account. There is nothing wrong with these claims as he was experiencing it first hand. And even if it’s a fictional story, he based it around his life and experience in WW2.
Irving however has left an impact on many historians and those interested in history. He has lied about sources in Dresden and the number he basically made up. Many people still use him as a source despite his forgery of TB-47 and his Holocaust denier attitude.
Sources:
Richard J. Evans, Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial
Can you be more specific in what claims you mean are propaganda?