"Saturation-bombing" of Dresden, Germany, a non-military cultural target with no heavy industry and no bomb shelters, but with a P.O.W. camp of Americans. Planned by England in revenge for a similar Nazi raid on Coventry five years earlier, waves of British and U.S. bombers continue pounding Dresden throughout the next day (Ash Wednesday) in order to create hurricane-like "firestorms." The inner city is completely incinerated, including the LDS branch house which is "destroyed right down to the cellar," while the air raid kills 250,000 people. Most are women and children refugees who double Dresden's population due to its being a safe-haven during the years of Allied bombings elsewhere. One survivor is Dorthea Speth, wife of Spencer J. Condie, current general authority.
[The Mormon Hierarchy - Extensions of Power by D. Michael Quinn, [New Mormon History database ( http://bit.ly/NMHdatabase )]]
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