The below exhibits are a joint project made possible by Spuren e.V. in Germany and TRACES Center for History and Culture (based in Iowa, USA), which use social history in order to facilitate historically-oriented understanding between people. Further information about POWs from both sides of World War II can be found at www.TRACES.org.

70 years after the Bombing of Dresden:
Beauty and Tragedy

This exhibit was on display from 15 February through 8 March  2015 in Galerie 13, Webergasse 13, 73728 Esslingen, Germany.  Galerie 13 is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The opening took place at 11 AM, Sunday, the 15th of February 2015: Invitation

Galerie 13 regularly displays oils and watercolors of the German painter Eugen Luick (1908-1991). In July 1944 he went as a soldier armed with a paint-box to Dresden and captured the beauty as well as the destruction of the unique cityscape in his pictures. At the same time, ten thousands of prisoners of war were at Dresden; their history told in a supporting exhibit available on loan from the American educational non-profit organization TRACES and its German sister organization, Spuren e. V.

Dresden’s Frauenkirche 1944 (left) and after the bombing of 1945, as painted by Eugen Luick; from his book Dresden: Schönheit und Tragödie (1985; English: Dresden: Beauty and Tragedy)