Transcript Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions.

Dresden
 Cultural hub of Northern Germany
 Called the Florence of the North
 A commercial/ transportation center
 Important Railway junction
 110 factories
 Many evacuees and refugees from the East and
Berlin
Timeline
October 31st
1940
February 13th 15th
• The Battle of Britain ends, British lose major casualties in London
• British bomb Dresden on the night of February 13th (first wave)
• Americans bomb Dresden on the days of February 14th (second wave) and 15th (third wave)
1945
May 8th,
1945
November
20, 1945
• End of World War II, Nazis are defeated by the Allies
• End of the Holocaust
• Nuremberg Trials begin, mass conviction of Nazis for war crimes
Reasons for the Battle
 Battle of Britain
 Revenge
 Show Red Army the might and strength of the
British and Americans
 Crush the spirit of the German People
 Destroy main railway junctions, factories
producing war machines, the strategic meeting
place of the Nazis
The Battle
 3 waves of bombings in 2 ½ days
 Head of the Bomber Command, Arthur Harris
 Within the city bounds of Dresden
 Used high explosive bombs and incendiary
bombs
 Survivors shot down with machine guns from
planes
 Goal was to inflict as much damage as possible
WARNING: the following
couple of slides contain graphic
war description and photos.
Please close your eyes if you are
feeling squeamish. Thank you!
The Inferno
 Extremely hot fires
 All the smaller fires merged to form one
giant inferno
 Whirlwind/ tornado of fire created
 Deaths from burns, smoke inhalation,
carbon monoxide poisoning, and
asphyxiation
Destruction
 Mainly older, more densely populated part
bombed
 85% of the fully built up city destroyed
 Large number of industrial facilities destroyed
 50% of homes demolished
 80% of city housing damaged to some extent
 1600 acres of land destroyed
 35,000-135,000 deaths
Importance
 Frightened the German people
 Was an unexpected attack by the Allies, usually
defensive
 First use of Napalm war
 If the Allies had lost the war, they would have
been tried for war crimes for this event
 Showed the might of the Allies, as well as the
hypocrisy.
Aftermath
 Joseph Goebbels: Allies now using “terror bombing” of innocent towns,
250,000 dead
 Winston Churchill: "Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of
Allied bombing."
 Arthur Harris: "The attack on Dresden was at the time considered a military
necessity by people more important than myself.“
 In truth, about 35,000 to 135,000 civilians died at Dresden
 Military objective for Dresden in question still, obvious reason was revenge
 No attempt by German prosecutors to pursue the United States and Great
Britain
Slaughterhouse-Five
 Written by Kurt Vonnegut
 Published in 1969
 Based on Vonnegut’s experiences during World
War II as a German prisoner
 He was held in Dresden
 Was the first novel to raise awareness of the
bombings, is the most famous example.
Postmodern Author
 Kurt Vonnegut
- Born November 11, 1922 in
Indianapolis, Indiana
- Known for using Patiche in his works.
Blends satire, black comedy, and
science fiction to create novels, such
as Slaughterhouse Five and
Breakfast of Champions.
- As a former soldier and prisoner of
war, many of his experiences
influenced his later works.
Journal Write
“War is at best barbarism…Its glory is all
moonshine. It is only those who have neither
fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans
of the wounded who cry aloud for blood,
more vengeance, more desolation. War is
hell.”
Discuss your feelings of war by making
comparisons of this quote to media, history, personal
anecdotes, or literature.