Yes. Old was bad and to be done away with, and build new, utilitarian everything. Things no one would get attached to. Because you don’t want anyone attached to anything but the state
There's something to be said for the Soviet modernism, surely? Thank you so much for this post. My grandmother was a refugee who arrived in Dresden shortly after the bombing. It is strange to think of her ghost in these pictures, between what had been and what was shortly to be built.
I will definitely check those out! We don’t really have any personal documentation from her, except for a couple of official papers. She could write, but it wasn’t something I think she ever did for fun, and she also suffered from sight issues from her 40s. Later in her life, she did not like to talk about the war or her family’s displacement (which seems reasonable!). Then, suddenly, a story would come out of nowhere. I’ve tried to keep up with them all, especially as she would tell different family members. Even though the stories are usually pretty awful they still feel like a connection to her, so although I know her experiences in Dresden were not positive, it was still lovely seeing it in these pictures and thinking of her.
It is depressing to think how much was lost and how little they cared
Well, they were building a socialist utopia, which ended as any utopian pipe-dream in history.
Yes. Old was bad and to be done away with, and build new, utilitarian everything. Things no one would get attached to. Because you don’t want anyone attached to anything but the state
There's something to be said for the Soviet modernism, surely? Thank you so much for this post. My grandmother was a refugee who arrived in Dresden shortly after the bombing. It is strange to think of her ghost in these pictures, between what had been and what was shortly to be built.
I'm so sorry about your grandmother's experiences.
You might want to check out the first instalment, which deals with the pre-Feb. 1945 postcards.
Do you, by chance, have any diaries or letters from your grandparents?
I will definitely check those out! We don’t really have any personal documentation from her, except for a couple of official papers. She could write, but it wasn’t something I think she ever did for fun, and she also suffered from sight issues from her 40s. Later in her life, she did not like to talk about the war or her family’s displacement (which seems reasonable!). Then, suddenly, a story would come out of nowhere. I’ve tried to keep up with them all, especially as she would tell different family members. Even though the stories are usually pretty awful they still feel like a connection to her, so although I know her experiences in Dresden were not positive, it was still lovely seeing it in these pictures and thinking of her.