A German ceremony on Sunday commemorating the victims of the Allied bombing of Dresden was marred by a neo-Nazi march that took place nearby.
As senior lawmakers and the German War Graves Commission gathered at Heide cemetery to remember the estimated 25,000 civilians who were killed in the bombing raids in the city in February 1945, hundreds of neo-Nazis assembled in Dresden’s Old Town for what was billed as a "commemoration in honor of the Dresden war dead,” according to Deutsche Welle.
"With regard to the destruction of Dresden, we must not only look at 1945, but must broaden our perspective to the time between 1933 and 1945," Dresden Mayor Dirk Hilbert said at the commemoration.
"In remembering, we must face up to the complexity of a simultaneously divisive and unifying history, an infinitely complex one, precisely because of the current political situation in our city, in our country and in Europe."
At the same time, less than three kilometres away at Dresden’s Old Town as many as 750 neo-Nazi staged a rally, with banners proclaiming "remember Dresden's war dead."
They marched through Dresden to music by Richard Wagner – noted for his antisemitic beliefs, Wagner was Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer.
A counter-protest also took place with hundreds of attendees vocally opposing the neo-Nazi “silent march,” shouting “Nazis out.”
A helicopter was visible hovering over the scene, and a water cannon and evacuation tank were brought to Dresden’s Old Town on standby.
The 77th anniversary of the Dresden bombings was marked with several events in the city. Recent years have seen the far right attempt to hijack the occasion for ideological purposes, MSN News reported.