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Dresden marks WWII bombing in far-right stronghold

  • February 13, 2020

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier chose his words carefully while marking maybe the most difficult of all anniversaries linked to the end of World War II — the bombing of Dresden — on Thursday.

“When we remember the history of the bombing war in our country today, then we remember both: the suffering of the people in German cities, and the suffering that Germans inflicted on others,” he said during a speech at Dresden’s Kulturpalast concert hall in a ceremony attended by British Ambassador Sebastian Wood and a host of Saxon politicians.

Read more: Commemorating the legacy of the WWII bombing of Dresden

“We don’t forget,” he continued. “It was Germans who started this horrific war, and by the end it was millions of Germans who carried it out — not all, but then many out of conviction.”

Some 25,000 people lost their lives, with many burning to death, over the initial three days of the British bombing. The military operation was continued by other Allied forces in the weeks that followed, just months before the end of the war.

“Within a few hours the bombs destroyed much of what people here in Dresden had built over centuries,” said Steinmeier. “Who the bombs struck was left to chance. They fell on children, women, and men, on Dresdeners and on refugees from East Prussia and Silesia. They fell on soldiers and on prisoners of war, on Nazis and on Gestapo members as well as on resistance fighters, forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners.”

An alternative vigil

The official mourning ceremonies in Dresden on February 13 always take place under a cloud of wariness. As dignitaries gather in concert halls to listen to speeches and Mozart requiems, so too does the country’s far-right scene, which has made the 1945 Dresden bombings the symbol of how the Allies rewrote the history of World War II.

Read more: Germany’s far-right AfD stronghold: Life is good, but ‘people are scared’

For many years, there was a bitter debate about the true death toll of the attack. Using inflated numbers first propagated by the Nazi regime, neo-Nazis still portray the bombing as a war crime that murdered up to 300,000 people. A 2010 historical investigation commissioned by the city, which established that 25,000 were killed over the three nights, did little to assuage the day’s fraught nature.

  • The bombing of Dresden

    Bombing raids

    Two hundred and forty-five British Avro Lancaster bombers set course from England to Dresden, in eastern Germany, on February 13, 1945. At 9:45 p.m sirens wailed through the frosty night air, and horror rained down on the city.

  • The bombing of Dresden

    Total war

    The Allies dropped about 250 firebombs, 3,000 demolition bombs and 400,000 incendiary bombs on Dresden, thus destroying the baroque city of 630,000 inhabitants.

  • The bombing of Dresden

    A city on fire

    Within 23 minutes the city was covered by a carpet of bombs. The historic center burnt to the ground. A second wave of British bombers and a US attack the following day with more than 300 bombs razed large portions of the city. About 25,000 people died.

  • The bombing of Dresden

    Women clean up the rubble

    The Dresden Cathedral, one of the largest Catholic churches in Saxony, was badly destroyed during the attack. It was built at almost the same time as the world-famous Protestant Church of our Lady, or Frauenkirche, which is located just 300 meters (1,000 feet) away. After the bombing, women removed the rubble while the men were off at war.

  • The bombing of Dresden

    Memorial for the destroyed city

    Dresden’s baroque Frauenkirche collapsed following the bombardment. The church stood in ruins in the city center until 1993 as a reminder of the destruction of war. Then it was rebuilt with public funds and donations. A British blacksmith, whose father had participated in the bombing attack as a pilot, rebuilt the tower cross to the original.

  • The bombing of Dresden

    Landmark in new splendor

    From 1994 to 2005, the Frauenkirche was rebuilt, thanks largely to donations from all over the world. The total construction costs amounted to €180 million, two-thirds of which were donated. The baroque quarter around the 91-meter church has experienced a revival as a new tourist destination in Saxony’s state capital.

  • The bombing of Dresden

    A baroque beauty

    Today Dresden is once again considered one of the most beautiful cities in Germany. With its baroque facades and picturesque location on the Elbe River, the city attracts tourists from Europe and beyond. Nearly 550,000 people call the city home.

  • The bombing of Dresden

    Debate about memory

    In the extremist scene, the anniversary of Dresden’s bombing has been used for propaganda purposes. Phrases such as “holocaust by bombing” present Germans as the victims while glossing over the country’s war guilt. For years, neo-Nazis have marched through the streets on February 13 with torches and banners. Confrontations between neo-Nazis and counterdemonstrators are frequent.

  • The bombing of Dresden

    The 75th anniversary

    Conflicts are expected this year. Right-wing extremist groups, the nationalist Alternative for Germany party and initiatives such as Dresden Nazifrei (Nazi-Free Dresden) have all registered protests. About 11,000 demonstrators are likely to join the annual human chain against neo-Nazis. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will speak at the central commemoration event at the Palace of Culture.

    Author: Peter Hille, Helena Kaschel


Annual processions by the far right have become a regular feature of the Dresden anniversary, an event which in recent years has been taken over by the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Members of Germany’s most successful far-right party since the war were on hand again this Thursday, setting up an “info-point” on Dresden’s Altmarkt Square ahead of a vigil in the evening, a nationalist parallel to the official commemorations.

“We decided not to talk about the numbers at all this year,” one AfD member told DW guardedly, referring to the procession. “It doesn’t matter how many it was.”

“The other events try to relativize this devastating bombing of Dresden, and put it into the context of what happened around the world,” said Jörg Urban, head of the AfD in Saxony, told DW. “They talk about the civil wars that happen around the world, saying that this kind of thing happens everywhere, and forget that we as a city had an individual fate. For Dresdeners, commemorating the victims has always been an identity-forming event. We want to keep it as a local Dresden event.”

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/dresden-marks-wwii-bombing-in-far-right-stronghold/a-52368359?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom

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