Firestorm Of Dresden The Bombing Of The World War II

Firestorm of Dresden Introduction: Dresden The bombing of Dresden from February 13 to February 15, 1945 remains one of the most controversial bombings in World War II. Located in eastern Germany, Dresden was targeted by Allied bombers during the final months World War II in the European theatre. Rationales behind the bombing remains controversial due to conflicting Allied and German viewpoints. The Allies contended that the bombing was to target industrial centers, communication hubs, and to aid Soviet troops advancing from the West. On the other hand, Germans asserted that Dresden had no major industrial hubs, and the attacked on an undefended city was a war crime. Prior to the bombing, Dresden was a cultural center and was one of the world s most beautiful cities termed the Florence on the Elbe for its unique architecture and arts. Some historians often label the bombing as immoral because prior to the city s destruction, Dresden was relatively untouched by Allied troops or aerial bombing runs. Howeve r, many justified the bombing as a way to decrease German morals by killing innocent and defenseless civilians. Following the decimation of the Florence on the Elbe, stories and propaganda emerged containing a series of myths which have led to the bombing being perpetually stigmatized and subject to intense moral and ethical debates that last to our present day. The Dresden bombing has all too often been unfairly stereotyped as being an overly-deliberate,Show MoreRelatedState Of Ww2 ( Background )1961 Words   |  8 PagesState of WW2 (Background) By 1945, the war between the Allies and Germany was slowly reaching its end. To the west, â€Å"Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s desperate counteroffensive against the Allies in Belgium’s Ardennes forest had ended in a total failure†. As well as in the east, it looked very hopeless for Germany(History.com Staff.). Meanwhile, the Western Allies began considering the use of strategic bomb to fight against Germany’s stubborn defense. â€Å"In January 1945, the Royal force began to considerRead MoreAnalysis of Slaughterhouse-Five, a Novel Written by Kurt Vonnegut1196 Words   |  5 Pageseffects of war on a man, Billy Pilgrim, who joins the army fight in World War II. The semi-autobiographical novel sheds light on one of history’s most tragic, yet rarely spoken of events, the 1945 fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany. Kurt Vonnegut was born in 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana to German parents. As a young man, Vonnegut wrote articles strongly opposing war for his high school newspaper, and the school newspaper of Cornell University, where he attended college (Allen 1). World War II broke outRead More Looking Into the Past in Vonneguts Slaughter House-Five Essay1006 Words   |  5 Pagesspring of 1945, near the end of World War II, American and British bombers rained a hail of fire upon the city of Dresden, Germany. With an estimated 135,000 dead, Dresden is known as one of the deadliest attacks in History, nearly twice as many deaths than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Kurt Vonnegut was among the few who lived through the firestorm; he wrote a book about it in fact. Slaughter House-Five (1969) is a fictional recount of his experience of the war. Many of the events (at least theRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five And Its Depictions Of Key World War II Events2218 Words   |  9 PagesMrs. Hallstrom English Honors 4 8 May 2016 Slaughterhouse-Five and its Depiction of Key World War II Events Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is an interesting but complicated novel about a man bouncing through time and space. The novel is a satire with elements of science fiction, although Kurt Vonnegut incorporates into the plot some of his actual experiences as a World War II soldier and prisoner of war. Vonnegut’s lead character and protagonist is Billy Pilgrim, a person who time travels throughoutRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five By Kurt Vonnegut1894 Words   |  8 Pagesonly focuses on World War II, but also on the two major atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the firebombing of Dresden. The author Kurt Vonnegut treats the most horrific massacres in World War II with sarcastic humor while also clearly being antiwar sentiment. The firebombing of Dresden, a city in eastern Germany, on February 13, 1945, lead to the cause of 130,000 civilian’s death. 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As of May 2014, there are multiple sources of conflict throughout the world, and a large majority of them result in war and tragedy. From the war in Iraq, threats from North Korea, and Russia creating friction with Ukraine, war surrounds and engulfs the world through media, via television sets that are commonly found in many householdsRead MoreTaking a Look at Gà ¼nter Blobel567 Words   |  2 Pageshad to flee in a small car to a relative’s house in Dresden. A few days later, on February 13, 1945, only days after their stay in Dresden, one of the most disastrous air bombing attacks of WW II decimated the city. As Blobel describes it, â€Å"the red night sky reflected the raging firestorm that destroyed the jewels of this once great city† [1]. This was an unforgettably sad day that Blobel will remember forever. Luckily, it was not long before the war came to an end, but the months before and after wereRead MoreKurt Vonnegut s Slaughterhouse Five Essay1905 Words   |  8 PagesKurt Vonnegut reflects his life during World War II as a German prisoner through his character Billy Pilgrim in the novel Slaughterhouse-Five. While enlisted in the US Army, Vonnegut had life threatening experiences that were inspiration for his writing. Vonnegut was a young boy during the Great Depression and was raised through the hardships of the time. As a child, Vonnegut’s father worked as an architect, but during the Great Depression, the building industry was brought to a halt and Vonnegut’sRead MoreSlaughterhouse Five, By Billy Pilgrim2024 Words   |  9 Pagesassumed that Billy Pilgrim relives his war-time experiences on a near daily basis. Another thing is that Billy avoids connections with people like his mother, and even his own fiancà ©. The conclusion of this analysis as a whole must therefore be that Billy Pilgrim became â€Å"unstuck† in time (in his own world) due to the events of which he witnessed and/or participated in during World War II. The horror of what was occurring around him, and due to the confusion he felt during the occurrence of these