Jo and I were in Dresden recently. During three days in February of 1945, Dresden was bombed by over a thousand United States Army Air Force and Royal Air Force planes. The firestorm created by nearly 4,000 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs turned the city’s center into a blast furnace. It is estimated that over 25,000 people perished.
The author Kurt Vonnegut was a prisoner of war held in Dresden at the time and survived its destruction. His novel Slaughterhouse-Five which was published 20 years afterward is considered his expression of the experience.
The bombing of Dresden was intended to terrorize Germany and force it to surrender. Less than three months later Adolf Hitler committed suicide and the German High Command surrendered unconditionally.
Of course the war continued in the Pacific until August, 1945 when America dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing between 150,000 and 250,000 people.
Jo and I have been to Hiroshima where we saw a group of school children being told about what happened there. Being present at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and seeing what’s left of the only structure that partially survived the blast was a somber, reflective and unsettling experience.
The memorial commemorating the bombing of Dresden is small and we were unaware of its existence until I got home and found a picture of it. The main square of Dresden was large, attractive and full of life. It felt unlike Hiroshima since there appeared to be no effort to remind us of what that took place there less than a century ago.
Yes, both Dresden and Hiroshima have been rebuilt and may now relate to what befell them differently but I don’t think our species has learned much from the tragedy of either. And so it goes.
Britany and haunting.
The cartoon says it all… Your post is very sobering.