Editing Dresden (section)

===Nazi era, Second World War===
[[File:Fotothek df ps 0000010 Blick vom Rathausturm.jpg|thumb|right|The ruins of Dresden in 1945. Facing south from the town hall (''Rathaus'') tower. Statue ''Güte'' (''Good'' or ''Kindness'') by August Schreitmüller, 1908–1910.]]

Two book burnings were organised in the city in 1933, one by the [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] on Wettiner Platz, the second one by [[German Student Union]] at the [[Bismarck tower|Bismarck Column]] on Räcknitzhöhe.<ref>[https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/phil/ige/das-institut/news/gedenken-10-mai?set_language=en TU Dresden reflects on its history: Critical campus tour to commemorate the book burning 90 years ago]</ref>

During the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945, the Jewish community of Dresden was reduced from over 6,000 (7,100 people were persecuted as Jews) to 41, mostly as a result of emigration, but later also deportation and murder.<ref>{{cite web|title=Names of Jewish victims of National Socialism in Dresden between 1933 and 1945|website=Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten|url=https://en.stsg.de/cms/names-jewish-victims-dresden-1933-1945|access-date=20 July 2015|quote=Nearly two thirds of the Dresden Jews succeeded to emigrate before the extermination apparatus started to work.|archive-date=16 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150416025207/https://en.stsg.de/cms/names-jewish-victims-dresden-1933-1945|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Dresden|website=Jewish Virtual Library|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0006_0_05398.html|access-date=20 July 2015|archive-date=26 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126063618/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0006_0_05398.html|url-status=live}}</ref> One of the survivors was [[Victor Klemperer]] with his non-Jewish wife, who believed that the bombing saved their lives.

The [[Semper Synagogue]] was destroyed in November 1938 on [[Kristallnacht]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Image of Kristallnacht, 9th November 1938 - smashing windows, Dresden's Semper Synagogue |url=https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en/noartistknown/kristallnacht-9th-november-1938-smashing-windows-dresden-s-semper-synagogue-is-destroyed/footage/asset/1274772 |access-date=2024-01-22 |website=Bridgeman Images |language=en}}</ref>

During the [[German invasion of Poland]] at the start of [[World War II]], in September 1939, the [[Gestapo]] carried out mass arrests of local [[Polish people|Polish]] activists.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cygański|first=Mirosław|year=1984|title=Hitlerowskie prześladowania przywódców i aktywu Związków Polaków w Niemczech w latach 1939–1945|journal=Przegląd Zachodni|language=pl|issue=4|page=54}}</ref> Other non-Jews were also targeted, and over 1,300 people were executed by the Nazis at the Münchner Platz, a courthouse in Dresden, including labour leaders, undesirables, resistance fighters and anyone caught listening to foreign radio broadcasts.<ref>{{cite web |title = Victims of the National Socialist judiciary {{!}} Gedenkstätte Münchner Platz Dresden {{!}} Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten |url=https://en.stsg.de/cms/node/775|website=en.stsg.de|access-date=20 July 2015|archive-date=16 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150416025426/https://en.stsg.de/cms/node/775|url-status=live}}</ref> The bombing stopped prisoners who were busy digging a large hole into which an additional 4,000 prisoners were to be disposed of.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dresden WW2 bombing raids killed 25,000 people – but it WASN'T a war crime|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dresden-ww2-bombing-raids-killed-5159536|access-date=20 July 2015|first=John|last=Nichol|website=[[Daily Mirror]]|date=13 February 2015|archive-date=23 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623112955/https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dresden-ww2-bombing-raids-killed-5159536|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the war, Dresden was the location of several [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]] subcamps of the [[Stalag IV-A]] [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II|prisoner-of-war camp]] for [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] POWs,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Megargee|first1=Geoffrey P.|last2=Overmans|first2=Rüdiger|last3=Vogt|first3=Wolfgang|year=2022|title=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV|publisher=Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|page=413|isbn=978-0-253-06089-1}}</ref> and seven [[List of subcamps of Flossenbürg|subcamps]] of the [[Flossenbürg concentration camp]], in which some 3,600 men, women and children were imprisoned, mostly [[Nazi crimes against the Polish nation|Polish]], Jewish and Russian.<ref name=gf>{{cite web|url=https://www.gedenkstaette-flossenbuerg.de/en/history/subcamps|title=Subcamps|website=KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg|access-date=22 November 2023}}</ref> In April 1945, most surviving prisoners were sent on [[Death marches during the Holocaust|death marches]] to various destinations in Saxony and [[Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|German-occupied Czechoslovakia]], whereas some women were probably murdered and some managed to escape.<ref name=gf/>

Dresden in the 20th century was a major communications hub and manufacturing centre with 127 factories and major workshops and was designated by the German military as a defensive strongpoint, with which to hinder the Soviet advance.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dresden-ww2-bombing-raids-killed-5159536 |title = Dresden WW2 bombing raids killed 25,000 people – but it WASN'T a war crime |last=Nichol|first=John|date=13 February 2015|website=mirror|access-date=20 September 2019|archive-date=13 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150413040408/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dresden-ww2-bombing-raids-killed-5159536|url-status=live}}</ref> Being the capital of the German state of [[Saxony]], Dresden not only had garrisons but a whole ''military borough'', the ''Albertstadt''.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-110208-030.pdf|title=Historical Analysis of the 14–15 February 1945 Bombings of Dresden|last=Angell|first=Joseph W.|publisher=USAF Historical Division Research Studies Institute, [[Air University (United States Air Force)|Air University]], hq.af.mil|year=1953|edition=1962|oclc=878696404|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218171142/http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-110208-030.pdf|archive-date=18 February 2013}}: Cites "Interpretation Report No. K. 4171, Dresden, 22 March 1945", Supporting Document No. 3.</ref> This military complex, named after [[Saxon]] King Albert, was not specifically targeted in the [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|bombing of Dresden]].

During the final months of the Second World War, Dresden harboured some 600,000 refugees, with a total population of {{Nowrap|1.2 million}}. Dresden was attacked seven times between 1944 and 1945, and was [[Soviet occupation zone of Germany|occupied by the Red Army after the German capitulation]].

==== Fire-bombing ====
{{Main|Bombing of Dresden}}
The [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|bombing of Dresden]] by the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) and the [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF) between 13 and 15 February 1945 was controversial. On the night of 13–14 February 1945, 773 RAF Lancaster bombers dropped 1,181.6 tons of incendiary bombs and 1,477.7 tons of high explosive bombs, targeting the rail yards at the centre of the city. The inner city of Dresden was largely destroyed.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/14/newsid_3549000/3549905.stm|title=1945: Thousands of bombs destroy Dresden|work=BBC News|date=14 February 1945|access-date=5 May 2009|archive-date=11 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100811071519/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/14/newsid_3549000/3549905.stm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>([http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/feb45.html RAF Bomber Command 60th Anniversary – Campaign Diary February 1945] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607042346/http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/feb45.html|date=7 June 2007}})</ref> Widely quoted Nazi propaganda reports claimed 200,000 deaths, but the German Dresden Historians' Commission, made up of 13 prominent German historians, in an official 2010 report published after five years of research concluded that casualties numbered between 22,500 and 25,000.<ref>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8574157.stm |title = Up to 25,000 died in Dresden's WWII bombing |publisher=BBC|date=18 March 2010}}</ref>

The destruction of Dresden allowed [[Hildebrand Gurlitt]], a major Nazi Museum director and art dealer, to hide [[Gurlitt Collection|a large collection of artwork]] worth tens of millions of dollars that had been stolen during the Nazi era, as he claimed it had been destroyed along with his house which was located in Dresden.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=How 1,280 Artworks Stolen by the Nazis were Hidden in a Munich Apartment Until 2012|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/04/degenerate-art-cornelius-gurlitt-munich-apartment|magazine=Vanity Fair|access-date=20 July 2015|first=Alex|last=Shoumatoff|date=19 March 2014|archive-date=28 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528133457/https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/04/degenerate-art-cornelius-gurlitt-munich-apartment|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Allies described the operation as the legitimate bombing of a military and industrial target.<ref name="Air Force Historical Studies Office" /> Several researchers have argued that the February attacks were [[Proportionality (law)#International law|disproportionate]]. As a result of the bombings, mostly women and children died.<ref>Addison, Paul and Crang, Jeremy A. (eds.). Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden. Pimlico, 2006. {{ISBN|1-84413-928-X}}. Chapter 9 p.194</ref>

American author [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s novel ''[[Slaughterhouse Five]]'' is loosely based on his first-hand experience of the raid as a [[prisoner of war]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/11/slaughterhouse-five.html|title=Slaughterhouse Five|date=18 November 2009|access-date=20 September 2019|archive-date=19 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161219032831/http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/11/slaughterhouse-five.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In remembrance of the victims, the anniversaries of the bombing of Dresden are marked with peace demonstrations, devotions and marches.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4030017,00.html?maca=en-DKpartner_yg_infomix_en-2315-xml-mrss|title=On Dresden Anniversary, Massive Protest Against Neo-Nazi March &#124; Germany &#124; Deutsche Welle &#124; 14.02.2009|publisher=Dw-world.de|access-date=5 May 2009|archive-date=28 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528133457/https://www.dw.com/en/on-dresden-anniversary-massive-protest-against-neo-nazi-march/a-4030017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geh-denken.de/joomla/|title=Geh Denken&nbsp;– Startseite|publisher=Geh-denken.de|access-date=5 May 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090429005712/http://www.geh-denken.de/joomla/|archive-date=29 April 2009}}</ref>