Editing Bombing of Dresden (section)

===Fatalities===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-08778-0001, Dresden, Tote nach Bombenangriff.jpg|thumb|Bodies awaiting cremation]]
According to the official German report {{lang|de|Tagesbefehl}} (Order of the Day) no.&nbsp;47 ("TB47") issued on 22 March, the number of dead recovered by that date was 20,204, including 6,865 who were cremated on the ''Altmarkt'' square, and they expected the total number of deaths to be about 25,000.{{sfn|Taylor|2005|p=42}}{{sfn|Evans|1996|loc="[http://www.hdot.org/en/trial/defense/evans/5-3.html The Bombing of Dresden in 1945]; [https://www.hdot.org/evans/#evans_5-2-d Falsification of statistics: The real TB 47]}} Another report on 3 April put the number of corpses recovered at 22,096.{{sfn|Addison|Crang|2006|p=75}} Three municipal and 17 rural cemeteries outside Dresden recorded up to 30 April 1945 a total of at least 21,895 buried bodies from the Dresden raids, including those cremated on the ''Altmarkt''.{{sfn|Neutzner|Schönherr|Plato|Schnatz|2010|pp=38–39}}

Between 100,000 and 200,000 refugees{{sfn|Biddle|2008|p=420}} fleeing westward from advancing Soviet forces were in the city at the time of the bombing. Exact figures are unknown, but reliable estimates were calculated based on train arrivals, foot traffic, and the extent to which emergency accommodation had to be organised.<ref name="Evans-Chapter-5.2.vii">{{harvnb|Evans|1996|loc=[http://www.hdot.org/en/trial/defense/evans/520dvii.html (vii) Further misuse of figures: refugees, burials, and excavations]}}.</ref> The city authorities did not distinguish between residents and refugees when establishing casualty numbers and "took great pains to count all the dead, identified and unidentified".<ref name="Evans-Chapter-5.2.vii"/> This was largely achievable because most of the dead succumbed to suffocation; in only four places were recovered remains so badly burned that it was impossible to ascertain the number of victims. The uncertainty this introduced is thought to amount to no more than 100 people.<ref name="Evans-Chapter-5.2.vii"/> 35,000 people were registered with the authorities as missing after the raids, around 10,000 were later found alive.<ref name="Evans-Chapter-5.2.vii"/>

A further 1,858 bodies were discovered during the reconstruction of Dresden between the end of the war and 1966.{{sfn|Taylor|2005|loc=last page of Appendix B p.509}} Since 1989, despite extensive excavation for new buildings, no new war-related bodies have been found.{{sfn|Taylor|2005|p=509}} Seeking to establish a definitive casualty figure, in part to address propagandisation of the bombing by far-right groups, the Dresden city council in 2005 authorised an independent Historians' Commission (''Historikerkommission'') to conduct a new, thorough investigation, collecting and evaluating available sources. The results were published in 2010 and stated that between 22,700<ref name="Shortnews">{{citation|author=Shortnews staff|date=14 April 2010|url=http://www.shortnews.de/id/826593/alliierte-bombenangriffe-auf-dresden-1945-zahl-der-todesopfer-korrigiert|title=Alliierte Bombenangriffe auf Dresden 1945: Zahl der Todesopfer korrigiert|language=de|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221230517/http://www.shortnews.de/id/826593/alliierte-bombenangriffe-auf-dresden-1945-zahl-der-todesopfer-korrigiert|archive-date=21 February 2014}}</ref> and 25,000 people<ref name="Rolf">{{citation|editor-first=Rolf-Dieter|editor-last=Müller|editor2-first=Nicole|editor2-last=Schönherr|editor3-first=Thomas|editor3-last=Widera|title=Die Zerstörung Dresdens: 13. bis 15. Februar 1945. Gutachten und Ergebnisse der Dresdner Historikerkommission zur Ermittlung der Opferzahlen.|publisher=V&R Unipress|year=2010|isbn=978-3899717730|language=de|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=02xJmNFrjY0C&pg=PA48 48]}}</ref> had been killed.