The Crime of heroes

About the present relevance of the memory of Dresden's bombing

Abstract

This paper analyzes the historical, political, and cultural reasons that explain the silence surrounding the memory of the bombing of Dresden and its inability to find conditions of social audibility within the collective narrative of Germany’s past. Drawing on a methodology that combines historical analysis with the theoretical contributions to the field of memory studies developed by Halbwachs, Jelin, Pollak, and Robin, it examines the different national contexts and political periods from the postwar era to the present. The paper concludes that the silence surrounding Dresden stems from social and political frameworks that legitimized the Allies’ heroic narrative while silencing the suffering of German civilians during the bombings ordered in the final months of the war. Finally, the parallel with the current situation in Gaza highlights the continuing relevance of the problem of voices seeking recognition beyond hegemonic consensuses.