Dresden, Germany
Thousands of black-clad neo-Nazis marched through Dresden this week, in the largest far-right rally since World War II. Extremists had been expected to turn out for the 60th anniversary of the Allied firebombing of the city, but not in such numbers. More than 5,000 of them massed outside the opera house, chanting slogans against “Anglo-American mass murderers and gangsters,” and playing Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” at top volume over loudspeakers. “The Americans have left a trail of blood that stretches from Dresden to Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and possibly Iran,” said Holger Apfel, leader of the far-right National Democratic Party. Dresden, which was almost completely flattened by massive bombing toward the end of the war, has in recent years become a center for neo-Nazi politics as well as anti-American sentiment.
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