I have oddly mixed feelings about Dresden. This is one of the most opulent and beautiful cities in Europe. Only Venice took my heart so completely. As a traveler, I think everyone should see the city, and appreciate the incredible effort that went into rebuilding it from the ruins of the bombing of 1945.
As a person of Jewish descent (born and raised, and now a Unitarian Universalist – unless I get a whiff of what I think may be anti-Semitism at which time I instantly change into major Jew mode), I have to think that Dresden wasn’t and still isn’t exactly contrite about its treatment of its Jewish citizens in the Hitler years. It seems more distancing from the distasteful behavior that took place, and a sense that the bombing of the city made up for any inappropriate behavior, ie. they’ve been punished for any sins they might have committed.
Unlike Berlin that struck me as a city weighted down by its Nazi past, beautiful Dresden seemed more likely to gloss over the Nazi atrocities. There was little mention of that pesky time in which Jews were sent off to die and their property confiscated.
One local guidebook describes the original synagogue as having been destroyed in 1938. Well, that was the night of the pogroms, that ravaged the Jewish communities throughout Germany, and that’s exactly what seems to be missing from Dresden. The context for the disappearance of Jews, and Jewish culture. A trolley tour I took mentioned the public pool and park that was once owned by a prominent Jewish businessman. No mention is made of the fate of this man, it was as if he simply donated his possessions and walked away.
While the devastation of much of the historic beauty of the city of Dresden horrified the world, and many questioned its destruction, at least one historian has noted that this truly beautiful city, was not exactly an innocent city. Frederick Taylor, author of Dresden: Tuesday, Feb. 13, 1945, indicated that Dresden was a Nazi stronghold even before Hitler took power, rife with anti-Semitism. Moreover, during the war it used slave labor of POWs and Jews to do precision work manufacturing. Presumably these workers were so happy to be alive they wouldn’t be sabotaging the works.
So, I’ve written two articles and it frankly required me to divorce my feelings as a person of Jewish heritage from my feelings as a smitten tourist.
The first one The Treasures of Dresden is the love story with Dresden.
The second on Jewish sites in Dresden, required me to confront my feelings about this heart-breakingly beautiful city.
I still haven’t resolved anything at all about it. But I will note the following: According to World Jewish Congress (November of 2009)
– Swastikas have been daubed on the wall of the New Synagogue in the eastern German city of Dresden on the eve of the 71st anniversary of the Nazi’s ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom in 1938. The interior minister of the state of Saxony, Markus Ulbig, condemned the desecration. “We will not allow such things to happen. In Saxony, there is no place for anti-Semitism,” he said. Uhlig paid a visit to Dresden’s Jewish community on Monday.
The report went on to note that:
Historians say the Nazis tested the German public’s reaction to the spasm of anti-Semitic violence and the lack of public outcry led them to press on, culminating in the systematic extermination of Jews launched three years later.
Clearly reminds me of the wise words often attribute to Edmund Burke, although whether he wrote them or not is unclear – All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
