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The 1945 Dresden bombings killed so many that thousands of corpses had to be burned on the main square (Photo: Valentina Pop)

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Dresden: Bombs, neo-Nazis and Kurt Vonnegut

The 1945 Dresden bombings killed so many that thousands of corpses had to be burned on the main square (Photo: Valentina Pop)

Slaughterhouse Five nowadays is called Halle Funf. It is a fair ground - conferences, exhibitions, concerts. Walking down one staircase, a wardrobe opens up. "There used to be meat hooks, now there are coat hooks," says Danilo Hommel, a former schoolteacher turned guide in Dresden.

It is in this cellar that the American author Kurt Vonnegut survived - as a prisoner of war - the Allied bombing of Dresden on the night of 13 February 1945 which levelled the city and killed some 25,000 peop...

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