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Lilly Library

Slaughterhouse-Five on display in Dresden

The Lilly Library is very pleased to have been asked to participate in the special exhibition, “Slaughterhouse 5 – Dresden Destruction in Literary Evidence,” currently on display from February 6th to May 12th 2015 at The Military Historical Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden, Germany: http://www.mhmbw.de/

Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the destruction of Dresden by Allied bombers between the 13th and 15th of February 1945, the focus of the exhibition is Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five. As a prisoner of war, Vonnegut experienced and survived the bombing while being held captive in an annex of the new slaughterhouse. His literary work recording that experience created an enduring image of Dresden in the English-speaking world. The Lilly Library holds the Vonnegut archive including the original manuscript drafts of Slaughterhouse-Five on display.

The exhibition also includes writings, art and personal items from, among others, Erich Kästner, Walter Kempowski, Martin Walser, Gerhard Richter, Gerhart Hauptmann, Durs Grünbein, Roman Halter, Marcel Beyer and Rudolf Mauersberger. The exhibition provides documentation of a diversity of perspectives on the bombing with many items being shown publicly for the first time. The exhibition also focuses on Dresden’s destruction in the propaganda battles of the war and post-war period, and in myths and legends.

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