(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] In May 1994
in the heart of London,
the Queen Mother was
invited to unveil a statue.
The statue had been erected as a memorial
to Arthur Harris who led
the Royal Air Force's
Bomber Command in World War II.
But of the many thousands present,
some were not so enthusiastic
about a memorial to Bomber Harris.
- I'm very pleased to be able to talk
with you today on this memorable occasion.
- [Narrator] As the Queen
Mother tried to deliver
her speech, there were
cries from the crowd
that Harris was a murderer.
- [Man] Murderer!
(group yelling)
- [Narrator] The Queen
Mother was visibly upset
by the jeering.
The crowd was protesting that
Harris had been responsible
for the slaughter of
thousands of innocent lives
during the massive bombing
raids on the German cities.
And, in particular,
the bombing of Dresden.
- For more than three years.
There could be nowhere more fitting
to honor him and his brave crews
or the 55,000 who died defending
our country and freedom,
but outside, the Royal Air Force Church.
(crowd yelling)
The statue I was pleased
to unveil four years ago.
We remember them today
with pride and gratitude.
And let us remember too all those
of every nation and
background who suffered
as victims in the second World War.
- [Narrator] Despite the protests,
the unveiling went ahead.
(trumpet blaring)
- His mission and, I quote, was to crush
the morale of the German
civilian population.
What he did was to kill 600,000 or so.
- [Narrator] Meanwhile in
Dresden on the same day,
a simple service was held to remember
the many thousands that
had died in the raids.
Dresden in Saxony was one of
Germany's most historic cities
dating back to the early 13th century.
It had always been admired as being one
of the most beautiful cities in the world
with its historic art
collections and galleries,
theaters, cultural buildings and palaces.
The magnificent Semper Opera had staged
many of the world's operatic
premiers by Strauss and Wagner.
Huge palatial edifices were constructed,
the Frauenkirche, the
Zwinger, the Moritzburg
and Pillnitz Castles and the Opera House.
Along with Europe's oldest and most famous
porcelain works in MeiBen - Meissen.
(dramatic music)
Over the following centuries,
visitors to Dresden
were witness to magnificent
and treasured art collections
by such renowned artists
as Canaletto, Monet,
Botticelli, Raphael,
Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens,
Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec,
to name but a few.
The Zwinger had often been praised
by many a visitor for
the outstanding beauty
of its baroque architecture
and for the splendid exhibits
and treasures housed in its wings.
It housed one of the
world's finest collections
of porcelain, stoneware and pottery.
There was also a rich collection
of scientific instruments
and clocks some dating back
as far as the 13th century.
There were beautiful art collections
and, also, one of the
world's most comprehensive
zoological museums.
The front of the gateway is topped
by the royal crown of Poland
along with the emblems
of the Saxon-Polish dynasty
of Augustus the Strong
who commissioned the
building of the Zwinger
as a celebration of
his power at that time.
The Theaterplatz was one
of Germany's finest squares
at the center of which stood
the statue of King John.
There has never been any mystery,
although there has been
some mystification,
about why the British
Royal Air Force bombed
and almost totally crushed
this beautiful city of Dresden
at the end of World War II.
By the February of 1945,
however, there had been a number
of bombing raids against oil
targets in eastern Germany
and these had been made
without unsustainable losses.
Nearly 1,000 Allied bombers had flown
deep into the heartland of Germany
and raided railway and oil installations.
The aim was to cut the supply of oil
to Germany's retreating
forces and to destroy
any remaining links of communication.
(explosions booming)
They created an outstanding
amount of damage
and, in doing so, inevitably
killed many thousands
of the civilian population.
Furthermore, the successful
Russian offensive,
which has begun in mid
January of the same year,
had created a new military situation.
As the Russians advanced through Silesia,
it became apparent that air attacks
in the east German cities
which confronted them
might be of powerful
existence - the Soviet Drive.
The Russian army, along with
their tactical air forces,
were already advancing towards Berlin,
but there was a fear that
Germany could bring up
a rear guard action from the east
from such cities as Dresden
and Leipzig and Chemnitz.
(explosions booming)
It was decided that a
severe blitz on these cities
would not only cause a
great deal of confusion
for German forces, but would also block
any movement of troops.
Furthermore, if attacks were
launched on those cities,
the disorganization and
havoc which would be created
would be much greater
because their population
had been swollen by the
many thousands of refugees.
A great many of these had moved to Dresden
from other German cities
which had already been bombed.
But a great many more
had fled there to escape
being in the path of the Russian advance.
Many of Germany's cities
had already experienced
a blitz or bombing raid.
Cologne, a city that once had a population
of 800,000 civilians, had been reduced
by the Royal Air Force to a city of rubble
which now only housed 40,000.
A population which had suffered carnage
on an unprecedented scale and ferocity.
Cologne had been the
first city to experience
the might of Bomber Harris'
new directive to his air force.
The massive bombing power of
no less than 1,000 aircraft
hitting the same target
in less than 90 minutes.
It was also the first air raid by Britain
that did not target the industrial areas,
but instead targeted the
very heart of the city.
And, in Cologne's case, this
heart was the residential area
housing the civilian population.
What had once been Germany's
fourth largest city
was now no more than a sea of rubble.
This once great thriving
city, which proudly stood
as the center of industrial
power, had been reduced
to a heap of twisted
iron and broken bricks.
The bombers had destroyed
the city's bridges,
crushed the railways and marshaling yards,
shattered the city's many churches
and demolished the city's
homes and factories.
In some areas, the fallen
masonry and debris was so deep
that the streets below
were completely hidden.
All that remained of Cologne was a mass
of gutted roofless shells
beneath which lived
a handful of the original population.
This was the catastrophic event
that the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command
could have on a city -
to literally remove it
from a map in one night.
This was the power of terror bombing.
And this is what the Russian commanders
wanted to happen to Dresden.
At the Allied conference in Yalta,
the Russians requested
the Allied cooperation
in the mass bombing of all
communications in Germany
to prevent any reinforcement
of the German eastern front.
They wanted these attacks
within an agreed bomb line
to keep the British
and American air forces
away from any territory
they might soon occupy.
In particular, they had requested attacks
on Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden
- all within the agreed
Anglo-American air operations.
Berlin was the first city.
On the 3rd of February 1945,
nearly 1,000 B-17 bombers
of the United States Eighth
Air Force made a massive raid
on the railways and
government targets in Berlin.
Another 400 bombers attacked the railways
and oil installations in Magdeburg.
(explosion booming)
The result was catastrophic
for the Germans.
The communications and railway networks
were smashed beyond recognition.
Large areas of industrial and residential
buildings were flattened.
Any remaining transportation link
to the German army was
completely eradicated.
An estimated 25,000 of
the civilian population
were killed and tens of
thousands more were homeless.
The city of Dresden was to be next.
Following a few days of bad weather,
on the 13th of February,
Bomber Command was ready
for the assault on the
unsuspecting German city.
As the citizens of Dresden went
about their daily business,
the first of the bombers took off.
The plan was to put a
first wave of aircraft
over the target to carpet the
area with incendiary bombs.
These would not only
serve as a marker for time
lighting up the night sky
for the rest of the bombers,
but they would also set the city ablaze.
Once the city's rescue
services and firefighters
had been put into action, a second wave
of bombers was to follow.
The second wave not only
carried a much heavier combo
of blast bombs, which
would spread the fires,
but even more incendiary
bombs to fuel them.
This was a new directive of Bomber Command
following the terrible
raid inflicted on Hamburg,
where they found the devastation
caused by burning the city,
was even more effective
than just blasting it.
The detonation of the exploding bombs
and the peals of thunder
and the crackling of flames
formed a veritable inferno which became
an overwhelming enemy for the city.
In the resulting and
infamous Hamburg fire storms
stirred up by the heavy winds,
the fire became a furnace
and the city was engulfed
in flames within an hour.
40,000 people had been killed
and almost 900,000 people
had lost their homes.
(fire crackling)
After a 10-hour flight, the first wave
of bombers approached Dresden.
The city below was
ill-prepared for its fate.
The resulting fires could be seen
from a distance of 80 kilometers away.
(explosions booming)
Werner Rietschel was a young boy
living in Dresden at the time of the raid.
It was a night he will never forget.
(speaking in foreign language)
I remember that in the
winter before in 1944,
there had been a small air raid
around the railway station.
When this attack started,
people didn't believe it was happening.
They couldn't understand
what was going on.
It had been a beautiful day.
I remember how warm it was.
When we heard the air raid
sirens, we had been standing
in the courtyard without our jackets.
That's how warm it was.
Shrove Tuesday 1945.
Even then, it wasn't until
we actually saw the bombers
in the air that we
hurried to the shelters.
And then, within minutes, it happened.
The doors banged, the
windows cracked and things
fell down all around us.
We were all very frightened.
I remember that I didn't
want to show my fear.
I was trying to show that I was a brave
and fearless young man
so I remember biting
into my pillow to hide just
how afraid I really was.
The first attack lasted about 20 minutes.
And, believe me, this
seemed like an eternity.
When we heard the
all-clear siren telling us
the raid was over, we were exhausted.
And you cannot imagine
how relieved we were.
It was still possible for
us to walk up the staircase
from our basement shelter
and I remember going
to a window to look out into the street.
Oh, beautiful city Dresden was on fire.
We all started to cry.
Well, we went back to bed.
Despite the horrible thing
we had just experienced,
we were glad it was over
and, being so tired,
I fell asleep straight away.
Before long, we were again
awoken by the sound of sirens.
Everybody rushed back to
the shelter and sat there
whilst we went through the
same experience all over again.
I could hear the bombs dropping
and I remember that all we cared about
was that we would survive this night.
A second wave of bombers
had arrived at the target
which was already a mass of
flame against the night sky.
Peter Grohmann recalls his experience.
(speaking in foreign language)
My relatives lived in
Dresden and, during the war,
we had come here as refugees from Breslau.
We stayed with our relatives.
I was only a small boy at the time,
but I remember the night
of the blitz very well.
I was sitting in the
basement air raid shelter
with my mother and my brother
when the bombers arrived.
I will never forget it as long as I live.
After such a long time
one tries to repress
such horrific memories and
forget about your experiences
in the war, but you can't.
After the war, we had
moved to west Germany
and, now that I am back in
Dresden, all of those memories
of that terrible night
have come flooding back.
We were in the basement when our house
took a direct hit from the bombers.
There were lots of us in this shelter.
Most of them were women and
children as most of the men
of the family were away
fighting at the front.
My uncle, I remember, was so scared
he actually started to have a breakdown.
He was worried that we had been trapped
and wouldn't get out alive.
Well, we finally did get out the shelter,
helped by rescue workers,
and I remember we had to get
into cars provided by the Red Cross.
All of the children were
blindfolded as we were brought out.
I sat in this car and we were taken away.
Well, I took off my blindfold
and that's when I saw
the horrifying pictures of the city.
It was a scene of devastation.
The city had gone.
In its place was a pile of
rubble and burning buildings.
People were wandering around
aimlessly lost and bewildered.
Rescue workers fought to
free trapped survivors
in the shelters below.
The firefighting crews couldn't cope
with the overwhelming
amount of burning buildings.
This once proud and beautiful city
was now sick with flames and smoke.
(somber music)
Many people had died in the shelters
under the crushing weight
of the fallen masonry.
Many more were trapped,
but the rescue workers
couldn't reach all of
them in time to save them
and hundreds of people
perished from asphyxiation.
Bodies lay everywhere amongst the debris.
The city's mortuaries were full.
Makeshift areas were established
in whatever buildings remained.
Dresden was now a city of the dead.
But the ordeal of Dresden
was, by no means, over.
(somber music)
(speaking in foreign language)
After this night, my relatives
who I was staying with,
no longer wanted to be
responsible for my well-being.
They knew it was no longer
safe in Dresden and decided
I would be safer leaving and
going back to my parents.
I left my relatives behind
and started to walk through the city.
It was a slow process,
everything was destroyed
and the roads were blocked.
The dead and wounded lay everywhere.
Bodies piled high on top of each other.
I suddenly felt fear for my
relatives, leaving them behind.
So I turned around and made
my way back to their house.
No sooner had I arrived
back at their front door
when I heard the sound once again.
I could hear the engines of the bombers.
Once again there were British
or American bombers in the sky.
(speaking in foreign language)
(plane engines roaring)
On the 14th of February,
311 American bombers
attacked the city once again.
Dresden received its
third blow in 14 hours.
(plane engines roaring)
(explosions booming)
The bomb aimers found it
difficult to see the target.
The city was covered in a
layer of smoke and dust.
(explosions booming)
Once again, thousands of tons of bombs
rained down on the already broken city.
Below, the already exhausted
and dazed citizens rushed
to the comparative safety of the shelters,
at least those shelters
that still remained.
(explosions booming)
Dresden had been removed
from the map of Europe.
(speaking in foreign language)
As we drove out of the city, we could see
that everything we knew was gone.
There was nothing left.
All of the buildings had gone.
All of them.
As we left the city, we
left behind a city on fire.
The last memories I have of
that time when we left Dresden
was a picture of flames, ruins, rubble.
We knew we couldn't return.
There was nowhere for
us to live, no shelter.
We eventually ended up in
the spa town of Hartha.
(speaking in foreign language)
My name is Dr Karl-Ludwig Hogh.
I am a priest in Dresden.
I have always had a great
affinity for the city of Dresden.
I was born here and
Dresden was the only place
I have ever worked as a priest.
I am retired now.
In the heart of our city was a most
impressive landmark - the Frauenkirche.
It had always been important to me
and to my family for many generations.
My ancestors were confirmed
and christened there.
Furthermore, the church was of
great importance to the city
as it was the headquarters of a church
in its battle against Hitler.
During the blitz in 1945,
the Frauenkirche was hit and collapsed.
This, for me, marked the
final destruction of Dresden.
From my parents' house, we could see
over the whole of the city.
When the fire started, it
caused the sky to go black.
And this lasted for about two days.
On the second day, I was
looking out of the window,
over the burning Dresden,
when all of a sudden
the black clouds over the Frauenkirche
just lifted and disappeared.
I could see the big dome.
It was a truly amazing site.
The Frauenkirche was still standing
even though it was completely
surrounded by flames.
I said to my mother that
it can't be as bad as that.
At least the Frauenkirche
has survived the fire.
I took my camera and took
a picture of the dome.
I am so glad I did this as this
was the last time we would see it again.
The Frauenkirche collapsed
just a few hours later.
This was the moment when
the people of Dresden
grasped just how bad the catastrophe was.
However, we always knew
that it was the Germans
who had started the bombing attacks.
My mother always told
us that the destruction
of the Jewish synagogue was the beginning
of the destruction of Dresden.
In 1938, the Nazis had
burned Dresden's synagogue
and my mother knew then that soon
all the other churches
would also be destroyed.
It was Britain's Royal Air Force, however,
that was to carry out
his mother's premonition.
But it wasn't only the churches
they destroyed in Dresden.
They destroyed the complete city.
More people died in Dresden
than in Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
Can such destruction be justified?
And, furthermore, was it
right to erect a memorial
to the very man that gave the
orders for such destruction?
Group Captain, Ken Batchelor, now deceased
served with Arthur Harris
and it was largely due
to his efforts that
the statue was erected.
- But, the losses were, I
think the terms was something
like 500,000, or something so,
in the Allied bombing raids.
You can make invidious comparisons,
because I've been three times to Warsaw.
And when the canon of Coventry Cathedral
protested about the statue being unveiled
by the Queen Mother, an
awful rumpus had been started
by the Mayor of Dresden only
last year after we were talking
about the project for
two and a half years.
I reminded the worthy
canon that in Warsaw 1944,
the Germans had, in General
Bor Komorowski's uprising,
killed 250,000 of the
Warsaw city population.
And our great friend, who
only died just a month ago,
Leonard Cheshire, wrote
an extremely good letter
on the 20th of May pointing out
that while we were bombing Germany,
Hitler was engaged in the final solution.
And that was, as he wrote.
And he'd said things like that before.
The termination of 20-million innocents
at a rate of 10,000 a day.
So it is possible to make
invidious comparisons,
but it's always been pointed out post-war,
try and keep the thing in perspective.
We don't bear personal
animosity to German propitiation
or do we try to reopen old wounds.
And just think of what
had gone on in Europe.
Thousands of those who had been deported.
I think the French lost about two million.
The Poles certainly lost
about six million in all.
War is a horror and we don't
want to see another one.
It ill becomes a nation to
complain about the statue
above our heads when
he, as much as anyone,
enabled the Germans to be
freed from the Nazi regime.
- [Narrator] The survivors of the blitz
tried as best they could to get
the city's main supplies working again.
Not only had the city lost the majority
of its famed buildings but, out of a total
of 220,000 homes in the city,
75,000 were completely destroyed.
And a further 11,500 were
damaged beyond repair.
The railways and transportation
systems were wrecked
and thousands of people
were homeless and living
in whatever makeshift
shelter they could find.
These were sad and desperate times
for the people of Dresden.
(somber music)
Post-war, they ended up on the wrong side
of the iron curtain and life
became a constant struggle.
However, although they
had lost a great part
of their life during the
blitz, the people of Dresden
never lost their character or the will
to bring the city back to life again.
(speaking in foreign language)
I went back to Dresden a
short time after I had left
and all I could see were ruins.
Kilometer after kilometer was flattened.
You couldn't even walk
through the streets properly
because there was so much rubble.
It was only later that the people
started to dig out little pathways.
There was not one stone
on top of another anymore.
Most of the famous and important
buildings were damaged.
Many of them destroyed completely.
The castle was in a very bad way.
In fact, up until just a few years ago,
you could still see the damage
that was caused to the castle.
The Zwinger was very badly damaged.
But, luckily, restoration
started on this very quickly.
The occupying forces were
responsible for this restoration
as they gave orders that
it should be started
immediately the war ended.
I am personally very grateful for this.
It has to be said that they
did, once the war had ended,
start to restore the buildings.
And, those that weren't
started, the stones were rescued
and preserved to keep what was left.
The Opera House was
also very badly damaged.
This was the favorite building
for the people of Dresden.
Immediately after the
war, people from all over
started to donate money
for its restoration.
Unfortunately, it was
not enough to rebuild it,
but enough was raised
to save all the stones
and what was left to
prevent any further damage.
We had to wait many years
for the opera to be rebuilt.
But the fact is that the Opera House
did finally get restored along
with its rehearsal stages.
The restoration was completed
through the hard work
of many, many people - the artisans,
the artists, the craftsmen.
This is something that the people
of Dresden can now be very proud of.
(speaking in foreign language)
The first reconstruction plan
was drawn up on the 7th of January 1946.
This was a relatively conservative plan.
After the FRG was founded, they introduced
a reconstruction law which
didn't come into force
until the 6th of September in 1950.
The law stated that all of the
destroyed areas of the city
were to come under their
jurisdiction which eliminated
any influence at all
from the private sector.
This was to prove disastrous
for the planning of the new city.
Another factor involving
the reconstruction plans
was that the new political
policies did not have any bearing
on Dresden's pre-war policy.
It was a constant battle.
But we did manage to save our
old standard of town planning
and also saved the Theater Square.
The FRG regime wanted all historic sites,
including the square, to
become new social centers.
If this had happened, we would
have lost our art gallery
and the castle, all the
way up to the tower.
The Semper Opera would
also have been replaced
by a new building.
(speaking in foreign language)
It took a very long time
for the construction work
to get underway on the Semper Opera House.
There were, of course, a great
many other important works
to begin in the destroyed city of Dresden.
The most important was
to clear away the debris
and the rubble and to
build houses for all those
that had lost theirs during the blitz.
This was a most interesting
time for us architects.
You could see how the ruined
city got out of its misery,
by reclaiming its own destroyed materials
and using them to build the new city.
The bricks of the destroyed
houses were ground down
and made into cement which was
used to build the new houses.
This was a very creative time for us.
There were no regulations
on style of architecture
so we were allowed to
create our own ideas.
However, this was
short-lived, as unfortunately
our new concepts and ideas were soon lost
through the bureaucracy
of the new government.
In 1967, there was a
competition for the renovation
of the Opera House and
architects from east Germany
were all asked to present their ideas.
Well, we came second and were asked
to carry out further
studies on the project.
At the end of the competition,
we had, however, presented
the summary which was used
as the government's directive
on the reconstruction.
The directive stated that the exterior
of the Opera House
should remain unchanged.
The interior, however, should be rebuilt.
There were plans for a new auditorium
with modern, comfortable seating
and a good all round view.
It should retain the legendary acoustics
of the original Semper Opera.
However, later on, it was decided
to change the exterior as well
as the building was going to be extended.
The original 19th century
building was not going
to be large enough to
function as a modern theater.
Accordingly, the directive
stated that the Semper Opera
should be extended underneath
its own original roof design.
There were two important elements,
both of which contradicted each other.
The acoustics and the view.
The fact that we could
not manage to create
good acoustics in the new room.
We had carried out a series of
tests and everytime we found
that it would be impossible to create
the necessary acoustics
in a room which provided
the excellent views required
under the directive.
It was discovered that we could
only get the acoustics right
by retaining the shapes
of the original interior
of the Semper Opera.
The other problem we had was
how to adapt the exterior
of the opera as the directive
was to keep the original
structures but to construct
them with modern methods.
This was just not possible.
We continued our studies for many years
trying to find ways around
the problem without success.
In 1971, however, we were
given new directives.
At this time, residential
housing was given priority
and there were no extra funds available
for cultural buildings.
Of course, whilst working
on housing projects,
we still spent some of our own time
coming up with new ideas for the opera.
When we finally went back to working
on the Semper Opera
plan officially in 1974,
we had our own ideas as
to how it could be done.
Different ideas from
the original directive.
We wanted to keep the
Semper building as it was,
apart from just a few minor
changes to the stage area.
All of the other functions
which were necessary
for a modern theater should be housed
in a completely separate building
and this is what we built.
The other building was
constructed in a modern way
and we made sure that the
new building only touched
the historic original on two small points
where they are both connected by bridges.
The government had to accept
that the good acoustics
could only be achieved by retaining
the old designs of the Semper Opera.
And, as we explained,
hearing a performance
was more important in
opera than seeing it.
The government department
had to concede to this point
and accept these decisive arguments.
The construction work
itself took seven years
which may seem a very long
time, but if you consider
all of the shapes which
had to be duplicated
from the original construction.
And, by copying exactly
the stones that remained,
it was not that long a time.
If you visit Dresden today,
it will be hard to imagine
how the city looked in
those post-war times.
Remarkable works have been carried out
by thousands of craftsmen,
restoring the city
to its pre-war glory and splendor.
Even now, the work is not complete.
There are many buildings
which are still undergoing
painstaking renovation and
the towers of the cranes
and scaffolding still
dominate the skyline.
(speaking in foreign language)
We are very grateful that it was possible
to preserve all of the
ruins and keep them.
And, now that the wall has come down,
we can rebuild the city.
We had already done a significant amount
of work before that.
The Zwinger, the Opera
House and the castle,
had been a great deal of preparation works
already carried out in these buildings.
So when the wall did come
down, much of the work
had been done so the
construction was much simpler
and could be rebuilt much more quickly.
The Taschenbergpalais was
built in less than 18 months.
The Italian village was
also quickly restored
and, at the moment, the Frauenkirche
is undergoing restoration.
You must realize, however,
that 60% of the city's original
buildings are still missing.
We still don't have a city center.
We still have to rebuild the
area around the Frauenkirche
and the castle on the old partella.
So we retain the right surroundings
for our historic monuments
using the original structure.
(speaking in foreign language)
We had moved away to west
Germany in the 1950s,
but I always kept in touch with my friends
and relatives and the people of Dresden.
I was told about all of the
reconstruction work going on
especially on the great buildings
such as the Semper Opera.
Every time I visited, my
relatives would proudly show me
around the city pointing
out the renovation.
It was only when you
had seen the devastation
and the destruction that you appreciated
just how much was going on.
New blocks of flats et cetera.
And each time I came back, I noticed
how much livelier the city was becoming.
It may be many years before Dresden
is once again the beautiful city it was
when it was painted by Canaletto.
But the ceaseless will to
preserve their heritage
by the people of Dresden has
ensured that it is once again
one of the jewels of Europe.
(speaking in foreign language)
I think in today's modern times,
it is difficult to
comprehend and come to terms
with all the misery which has
been caused in this world.
I use literature and satire to help me.
In my work as a comedian,
I try to look at life
from a different angle and
try to paint a better picture.
We all have to learn to laugh again.
Laughing about our
mistakes and our weaknesses
makes us all stronger.
(orchestral music)
