February 23, 2005

DRESDEN, Germany/GENEVA – The city of Dresden has marked the 60th anniversary of the allied firebombing during the Second World War in which 35,000 civilians are estimated to have died. The historic city center was reduced to rubble.

At a memorial service in Dresden's reconstructed Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), February 13, Rev. John Irvine, Dean of Coventry Cathedral England, presented Bishop Jochen Bohl, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony, with a cross made from medieval nails as sign of reconciliation.

Such crosses are made from nails retrieved from the roof of Coventry Cathedral after it was destroyed by German bombing in 1940.

The Dresden church was almost completely destroyed by the 1945 bombing. Reconstruction began in February 1993. The church will be re-dedicated and re-opened later this year.

Church bells tolled at 9.45 p. m. to mark the time when the bombing of the city began on 13 February 1945.

Tens of thousands of Dresden residents took part in the commemoration. At the city's theater square, thousands more took part in the "10,000 candles * A picture shared around the world" event. Others in a silent memorial at the city's old market, placed candles to form in German, the phrase, "Dresden has had enough of Nazis."

The memorial events in Dresden were disrupted by a gathering of about 5,000 supporters of far-right wing groups who waved black flags and banners, in what was seen as the biggest neo-Nazi demonstration in Germany's post-war history.

Dresden has responded well to the threat of neo-Nazism through silence and lights of hope, Bishop Bohl said in a television interview. The Frauenkirche, he noted, had been rebuilt in a spirit of reconciliation. Dresden residents were grateful for all the support that had come from people in Europe and worldwide.

Lutheran World Information
Adapted from an Ecumenical News International article.