Another look at the WW2 bombing of Germany

A few days back the New York Times ran an essay by Peter Schneider on the recent German "rediscovery" of the horrors visited on the German people during WW2, in particular, the vast destruction caused by Allied wartime bombing. Der Spiegel is now running a six-part series on the bombing campaigns, while Jörg Friedrich's Der Brand. Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940-1945 (The Fire: Germany Under Bombardment, 1940-45) has been a German bestseller since November.

I did not link to the Times essay at the time. For some reason I found it unsatisfactory: perhaps too much of a personal meditation, too much on past German amnesia and too little on the implications of the new remembrance. There is now another review, however, which takes a narrower focus but ends up more satisfyingly incisive. It is in the Boston Globe, and read alongside the Times essay, merits a mention here.

Posted by David on January 23, 2003 10:57 PM