Dresden

Dresden was known as Florence on the Elbe.

Dresden was firebombed in 1945.

As Meva's parents, we visited Dresden to celebrate her twentieth birthday. We took the opportunity to explore this beautiful city.

Between the 13th and 15th of February 1945, British and American bombers fire bombed the city of Dresden, Germany. These actions were later deemed a war crime.

Rescue workers feared that landmarks of baroque Dresden, seen as the jewel of Germany, would be swamped by water.

The record flood came as a tragedy for Dresden, which was reduced to rubble at the end of World War II and only began reconstructing historic buildings a decade ago after German reunification.

The actual total hardly matters: if Dresden was indeed a war crime, just one death would make it so.

‘Father, you saw the papers, when Dresden happened. You see the papers today. People are seeing the cost of this, truly. Now that we know the consequences, countries will not use it.’