Dresden's 70-year trauma

British planes dropped explosive and incendiary bombs on Dresden during the night of February 13th, 1945. American planes followed. In four raids, at least 3,900 tonnes of bombs were dropped.

The head of RAF Bomber Command in Britain, Air Marshal Arthur Harris, had said in 1943 that: “The destruction of German cities [was part of the] accepted and intended aims of our bombing policy.”

Breaking civilian morale was intentional then. Authorities point out that Hitler bombed civilians first.

Nora Lang is now 83. When she and her parents and brothers were bombed in Dresden, she was 13.

Lang recalls: “There was a ceaseless dropping of bombs, this booming noise. I always compared it to the sound as if coal or potatoes were dropped on my head. At the time, it was a very familiar sound to us.”

After the first wave, Nora and one of her brothers were brought to their neighbours’ cellar. Their parents and the other brother went back to their house to salvage some belongings. And yet the