Dresden: Before and After and Vonnegut
by DrKDoonesbury · 6 minutes ago
A collection of images of Dresden before 1945
After the bombings that took place between Feb. 13-15. There were four air raids done by the RAF and USAAF. They dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city. My girlfriend's father was 4 years old at the time of the bombing and has gotten to see the city go from being in ruins, to becoming part of the DDR, and then the Wende, and finally being restored. And my great-uncle was one of the USAAF bombers.
It is not possible to describe! Explosion after explosion. It was beyond belief, worse than the blackest nightmare. So many people were horribly burnt and injured. It became more and more difficult to breathe. It was dark and all of us tried to leave this cellar with inconceivable panic. Dead and dying people were trampled upon, luggage was left or snatched up out of our hands by rescuers. The basket with our twins covered with wet cloths was snatched up out of my mother's hands and we were pushed upstairs by the people behind us. We saw the burning street, the falling ruins and the terrible firestorm. My mother covered us with wet blankets and coats she found in a water tub. We saw terrible things: cremated adults shrunk to the size of small children, pieces of arms and legs, dead people, whole families burnt to death, burning people ran to and fro, burnt coaches filled with civilian refugees, dead rescuers and soldiers, many were calling and looking for their children and families, and fire everywhere, everywhere fire, and all the time the hot wind of the firestorm threw people back into the burning houses they were trying to escape from. I cannot forget these terrible details. I can never forget them. — Lothar Metzger, survivor.
A 22 year old Kurt Vonnegut in military uniform. Vonnegut was a POW in Dresden during the fire bombing. The German government didn't think Dresden would be a target, so not much was done in terms of setting up bomb shelters. The POWs were lucky in the fact that they were pretty much in the safest place in all of Dresden, the old meat lockers in a Slaughterhouse. If you've read Slaughterhouse-Five, you're familiar with the characters Billy Pilgrim and Edgar Derby. These characters were based on real people. The person who Pilgrim was based on was boy Vonnegut said had no reason to be in the military and starved to death. The person who Edgar Derby was based on was shot for taking a tea pot after cleaning out the bodies in a basement. Can you image being 22 and experiencing this?
Vonnegut's letter home after he was liberated.
A documentary is in the works about Vonnegut's life. There will be never before seen interviews with him about his experience in the war and in Dresden. For more information, please see http://kck.st/1A8IJtb
by DrKDoonesbury · 6 minutes ago
A collection of images of Dresden before 1945
After the bombings that took place between Feb. 13-15. There were four air raids done by the RAF and USAAF. They dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city. My girlfriend's father was 4 years old at the time of the bombing and has gotten to see the city go from being in ruins, to becoming part of the DDR, and then the Wende, and finally being restored. And my great-uncle was one of the USAAF bombers.
It is not possible to describe! Explosion after explosion. It was beyond belief, worse than the blackest nightmare. So many people were horribly burnt and injured. It became more and more difficult to breathe. It was dark and all of us tried to leave this cellar with inconceivable panic. Dead and dying people were trampled upon, luggage was left or snatched up out of our hands by rescuers. The basket with our twins covered with wet cloths was snatched up out of my mother's hands and we were pushed upstairs by the people behind us. We saw the burning street, the falling ruins and the terrible firestorm. My mother covered us with wet blankets and coats she found in a water tub. We saw terrible things: cremated adults shrunk to the size of small children, pieces of arms and legs, dead people, whole families burnt to death, burning people ran to and fro, burnt coaches filled with civilian refugees, dead rescuers and soldiers, many were calling and looking for their children and families, and fire everywhere, everywhere fire, and all the time the hot wind of the firestorm threw people back into the burning houses they were trying to escape from. I cannot forget these terrible details. I can never forget them. — Lothar Metzger, survivor.
A 22 year old Kurt Vonnegut in military uniform. Vonnegut was a POW in Dresden during the fire bombing. The German government didn't think Dresden would be a target, so not much was done in terms of setting up bomb shelters. The POWs were lucky in the fact that they were pretty much in the safest place in all of Dresden, the old meat lockers in a Slaughterhouse. If you've read Slaughterhouse-Five, you're familiar with the characters Billy Pilgrim and Edgar Derby. These characters were based on real people. The person who Pilgrim was based on was boy Vonnegut said had no reason to be in the military and starved to death. The person who Edgar Derby was based on was shot for taking a tea pot after cleaning out the bodies in a basement. Can you image being 22 and experiencing this?
Vonnegut's letter home after he was liberated.
A documentary is in the works about Vonnegut's life. There will be never before seen interviews with him about his experience in the war and in Dresden. For more information, please see http://kck.st/1A8IJtb
