Propaganda Trumps History

The Government of Canada through its heritage department, devoted a good sum of tax money toward building a new museum to house the Canadian War Museum and take it to a new site, not far from the downtown area of Ottawa, from its former position close to the Parliament Buildings, the National Gallery, and the Canadian Mint.

The War Museum had outgrown its former location, an old stone building inadequate to house its collection and in any event, incapable of doing justice to the museum's intention to portray all facets of war and its consequences. In its determination to present a completely neutral display of war, the administration of the museum was prepared to present to the visiting public a true picture of war in all its destructive dimensions.

Not immune to display were several documented instances where the Canadian public - justifiably proud of the valour and dedication of their armed forces during the first and the second World Wars - came face to face with historical incidents that stained that proud reputation.

One was a dreadful instance of what can go wrong in a war situation when troops are inadequately trained and proper oversight tended to. During the 1993 war in Somalia, some members of the troop belonging to the Canadian Airborne Regiment, (since disbanded), captured, tortured and murdered a Somali teenager, Shidane Arone.

A dreadful occurrence that turned out to be a nightmare of misery, shaming Canada into conducting a hearing to try to come to terms with the breakdown of authority.
That matter was unresolved, the prime minister of the day, Jean Chretien, chose to shut down the hearing at the very time that it was making progress to discern how and where things had gone wrong.

It was simply too embarrassing for the military and for the government of the day to proceed to completion. The museum, despite anger from some members of the public and military veterans, explained, reasonably enough, that Canadians should be mature enough to examine themselves and bear the consequences. And, presumably, learn from them.

Then came another controversy, this one over aerial bombing by the Allies over Dresden during the Second World War. This was an attempt by the Allies to shatter the confidence of the German people, to visit upon them the misery that Nazi bombers brought to England, incessantly bombing London, requiring the evacuation of many of its children to refuge elsewhere, including abroad for the duration of the war years.

The Canadian Bomber Command took part in the bombing of the ancient and beautiful city of Dresden. The Canadian War Museum commissioned and mounted large murals showing the destruction of the city, with bodies of citizens strewn about the shattered landscape, a testament to the horrors of war.

A plaque that was mounted with the exhibit read: "The value and morality of the strategic bomber offensive against Germany remains bitterly contested. Bomber Command's aim was to crush civilian morale and force Germany to surrender by destroying its cities and industrial installations. Although Bomber Command and American attacks left 600,000 Germans dead and more than five million homeless, the raids resulted in only small reductions of German production until late in the war."

A condemnation of war in general, the display's purpose was to bring the public's attention once again to the bitter fact of civilian populations being targeted illegally, in contravention of war-time conventions. The result was that an uproar ensued in the summer of 2007 when the public, flocking to the newly-opened museum, viewed these displays.

The most vocal complaints issued from Canadian war veterans who demanded the text be altered to read: "Thousands perished in the raids and millions were left homeless. While these numbers are very large, they pale in comparison to the genocide perpetrated by the Germans and their proxies", in reference to the Holocaust, among other undeniable German atrocities.

Those in the public who defended the museum's insistence that the display was not meant to condemn the Canadian air force, but merely to point out the horrors of war, themselves stirred the pot of controversy by claiming that the veterans' objections were political in nature, and were an effective denial of history.

Above all, that the veterans were stung by the implications that their bombing of civilians did nothing whatever to alter the course of the war, and the missions were unnecessary and the cause of countless deaths for no good purpose. Ultimately, however, public opinion came down on the side of the veterans and the museum moved from its position, succumbing to adapting to the requested change, settling the dispute.

Predictably, many were upset with the turn-about. Historians and educators, members of the public and some war veterans claimed, logically, that a museum is meant to convey accurate and meaningful information, free of bias.

Now, years later, information coming out of a German commission comprised of thirteen prominent German historians has reached the conclusion that the figure of 500,000 killed in bombing raids on Dresden represented Nazi propaganda of the period.
It would appear that the bombing raids which took place between February 13 and 15, 1956, were responsible for no greater a figure than 25,000 deaths.

That number too is horrendous, but it is not a half-million people. Those historians who took pleasure in comparing the 500,000 presumed deaths to the horror of the Holocaust may contest the commission's findings. They might wish to confer with the commission head, Rolf-Dieter Muller, who took his findings from a close study of all available evidence, examined minutely for the first time.

Mr. Muller has advised the press that the "ludicrous speculation" surrounding Dresden casualties will be put to rest once and for all when the final report of the commission is published next year.