Dresden’s ‘Civil Courage’

This article, A City Mobilizes Against Neo-Nazis, also describes the events of February 13th, 2010 in Dresden, where counter-protesters clashed with and successfully prevented an extreme right-wing protest on the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden. The article is informative, because it provides a number of quotes from politicians about the counter-protest and its process.

There are a number of quotes in this article that stand out to me. First the quote from Hannah Lichtenberg: “It was bad enough that we had the luck of being hit by more bombs than any other German city,” “Now, every year they come out to play war again. Every year.” The Neo-Nazis in their remembrance of the war bring back a past, but not just a remembrance of the past, but in a way reenacting as if it were play and the deaths and carnage are solely for political gain. Additionally there is this following quote from Katja Kipping: “Feb. 13 should not be used to distract from Nazi crimes. Germany started the war — it just came home on Feb. 13.” I agree with her on this with the added notion that the war and violence caused by either side is awful and should not be seen as black and white good or bad, despite what politicians on either side would like.