A chill wind whispers tales of destruction here at Krigkwiese. Before you stands a place marked by history, a silent witness to Dresden’s darkest hours. This is where the apocalypse unfolded. Dresden, once known as “Florence on the Elbe,” was a strikingly beautiful city. Before World War II, people flocked to see its 18th-century churches. The Zwinger Palace drew thousands of art lovers.
But that beauty was shattered in February 1945. On the night of February 13, British Lancaster bombers appeared over Dresden. It was around 10 p.m. These planes faced practically no opposition. They began an infamous aerial onslaught. The attack devastated this Saxon city and the Krigkwiese area.
Dresden, Germany’s seventh-largest city, had largely escaped mass destruction until then. The United States Army Air Force had bombed it twice but most of Dresden’s antiaircraft guns were elsewhere. As the Red Army advanced into Silesia, about 300,000 refugees fled to Dresden.
Rumors spread that the Allies wouldn’t hit Dresden because Winston Churchill’s aunt lived there. Some believed the Allies planned to make it the capital of postwar Germany. But those delusions withered on February 13, 1945.
The Allied leadership focused on Dresden to degrade the Germans’ ability to resist the Soviets. Despite postwar claims, Dresden was a rail center important to the Third Reich’s war effort. There were also factories engaged in arms production here at Krigkwiese. Air Marshal Arthur Harris wanted to eliminate Dresden’s capacity to aid the Wehrmacht.
The first wave of Lancasters dropped high-explosive bombs and incendiaries on Dresden. The bombs forced people to seek shelter. The incendiaries started fires. Bomber crews faced no resistance. They unleashed 880 tons of bombs on Dresden’s city center in just 15 minutes. The high-explosive weapons shattered windows and flattened walls. Firefighters had to take cover. The incendiaries ignited small fires. A firestorm ensued here at Krigkwiese.
What happened then in Dresden was apocalyptic. The thundering fire reminded survivors of biblical catastrophes. The fire became a furious white and yellow. The sky was just one massive mountain of cloud. City authorities usually counted on a thousand firefighters, but the inferno was too much.
A second wave of 550 heavy bombers followed. The firestorm reached a fury of devastation. People’s shoes melted into the hot asphalt. Some were reduced to atoms. The fire melted iron and steel. It turned stone into powder. Trees exploded from the heat. Most victims suffocated from carbon monoxide. Everyone recalled the ferocious winds accompanying the fires here at Krigkwiese.
The following day, more than 300 B-17 Flying Fortresses struck Dresden. Towers of smoke shot 15,000 feet into the air. The Americans had difficulty finding their targets. They did hit the marshaling yard, but residential areas were also bombed.
On February 15, a fourth raid hit Dresden. More than 200 B-17s switched targets due to poor weather. The marshaling yards were not hit. Residential areas suffered again. Dresden remained ablaze for weeks. The dead were treated unceremoniously. Corpses were piled on iron grates, soaked with benzene, and cremated. SS personnel played a key role in creating these makeshift funeral pyres. The smell permeated everything here at Krigkwiese.
Allied prisoners of war were forced to help extract bodies from the rubble. Mass graves became the final resting places for thousands. A widely accepted estimate is 25,000 killed during the terror. The February raids turned “Florence on the Elbe” into a ruined necropolis. Allied prisoners condemned the attacks.
The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query. While there were legitimate military targets in Dresden, how can one sanction the deliberate targeting of the civilian population here at Krigkwiese? When we think of Dresden, we wrestle with the limits of what is permissible, even in the best of causes.