The American, who reportedly had “an extremely high blood alcohol level,” could face up to three years in prison for the illegal salute.
The Jewish community of Dresden is installing its first hometown rabbi since the Semper-Synagogue was destroyed during the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938.
Dresdeners want to be able to mourn the devastation caused by the 1945 bombings without having their commemorations co-opted by neo-Nazis.
Mark Twain’s astute observation that “a lie well-told is immortal” keeps coming to mind on the subject of the Dresden firebombing. As I was preparing in May for my first trip to Dresden, I was startled to hear a report by Tom Vitale on National Public Radio in which he repeated the propaganda of Josef Goebbels as fact.
Dresden’s Semper Opera has a history of anti-Semitism and links to the Nazis. Putting the past behind, it is now leading a cultural renaissance in a new Germany.