Slaughterhouse 1945

Posted by Miss Cellania in Book & Lit, Weapons & War on July 2, 2008 at 10:44 am


Kurt Vonnegut’s new book Armageddon in Retrospect is about war and peace. Included is a letter he wrote to his family in 1945 explaining the late author’s stint as a POW in Dresden. His experiences became the basis of the book Slaughterhouse Five.

On about February 14th the Americans came over, followed by the R.A.F. Their combined labors killed 250,000 people in twenty-four hours and destroyed all of Dresden—possibly the world’s most beautiful city. But not me.

After that we were put to work carrying corpses from Air-Raid shelters; women, children, old men; dead from concussion, fire or suffocation. Civilians cursed us and threw rocks as we carried bodies to huge funeral pyres in the city.

When General Patton took Leipzig we were evacuated on foot to Hellexisdorf on the Saxony-Czechoslovakian border. There we remained until the war ended. Our guards deserted us. On that happy day the Russians were intent on mopping up isolated outlaw resistance in our sector. Their planes (P39’s) strafed and bombed us, killing fourteen. But not me.

Read the entire letter at Newsweek. Link -via Grow-A-Brain


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7 comments to "Slaughterhouse 1945"

  1. CheeseDuck
    July 2nd, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    Theres a new Vonnegut book? Isn't he dead?

  2. bean
    July 2nd, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    I take it you haven't read Heinlein's new book, Variable Star, or listened to the bajillion albums Tupac has released since he died.

  3. chet
    July 2nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    @cheeseduck It's a collection of some of his unpublished short stories. Almost all of them deal with war and most recall the firebombing of Dresden. I like Vonnegut's writing, but after reading this new collection, I didn't feel like it was up to the level of his published stuff. His son's intro and the letter from 1945 were good to read though.

  4. Christophe
    July 2nd, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    I want his guardian angel.

  5. Rob Martinez
    July 2nd, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    Just finished this book, really interesting stuff.

  6. Lionheart
    July 2nd, 2008 at 6:29 pm

    It seems very interesting to read.

  7. Tim Giachetti
    July 3rd, 2008 at 6:58 am

    SH5 is an amazing novel.
    I would also recommend "Catch 22" as it shows the worth of men who take advantage of the most terrible situations. Extremely rellatable to the war in Iraq, erm , sorry, the money machine which is Iraq.


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