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Mr
F Gain
writes from Santa Monica, California, on May 6, 2000
Thursday, May 6, 1999
Bombing and Strafing of Dresden, 1945
I WAS born and went to school in the beautiful town of Dresden. I have my fondest memories of this fairytale city. My older brother's British wife liked Dresden very much -- she liked the Zwinger, Wormers and the Weindorf. All places served wine and had singalongs. Several times I went to the Opera House. After 1933, when there were vacant seats left, just before the start of the Opera, teenagers were let in for only 50 Pfg. Our family lived on Jakobsgasse, named after a Jacobin Monastery. I went to the Annenkirche for Bible studies with Pfarrer Bohljahn. The Dresden Hygiene Museum was I believe the first in the world. There we had a Man made of Glass with all the internal organs, later joined by a female.
I was in the Army when the town was bombed. My parents could not stand staying in the small cellar and went to the nearby Elbe River. Father died weeks later and my mother told me that low flying planes attacked them with machine gun fire. The cruel bombing was inscribed in my mother's face until she died. Thank you . . .
P.S. At the 50 year Memorial Service at Dresden they invited the Mayor of Coventry, to show that the Germans also bombed towns badly. I found out later in a British Magazine that Coventry had over twenty aircraft factories and the German attack cost the lives of 554 persons.
David Irving