"Wailing Shall Be in All Streets" is a "memoir" written between 1945 and 1947. It was Vonnegut first known literary attempt to describe his time as a P.O.W. during the firebombing of Dresden. It was first published in the posthumous collection Armageddon in Retrospect and reprinted in the second volume of Library of America's Vonnegut set in 2011.
Summary[]
On the first day of their basic training, a group of new American soldiers were told by a lieutenant that it was time to abandon their notions of "sportsmanship and fair play" and recognize that war is about killing the enemy any way they can. The Second World War was a "new kind of war, with all destruction, all killing approved," proving that a modern democracy, when it believes it has reason and civilization on its side, can be as horrible as any other government at war. Once when hitchhiking back home from Camp Atterbury after recuperating from being captured in the Battle of the Bulge, Vonnegut was given a ride by three middle aged women excited about all the Germans he must have killed and how much he must want "to get over and kill some of them dirty Japs now." He kept his own views about war and killing to himself, which he had formed as a result of witnessing the firebombing of Dresden in February 1945.
In January 1945, Vonnegut was one of 150 privates sent to work in Dresden, the only major German city not yet bombed by the Allies. It was viewed as an "open city" since its primary industries were not military but health care, food processing, musical instrument manufacturing, and other non-strategic functions. Refugees—old men, women, and children—came to Dresden to flee destruction in other parts of Germany. While air raid sirens and a period in bomb shelters were a daily occurrence, the planes were always en route to elsewhere and the alarms were viewed by the P.O.W.s as more of a break period for rest and socializing. Most shelters were little more than basements and wine cellars. Known by tourists as one of the world's most magnificent cities, Dresden was dotted with parks, statuary, old churches, libraries, museums, theaters, art galleries, a zoo, and a university. Vonnegut saw it as representing all the was good about European civilization, both in history as well as the promise of a post-war future. In February 1945 Dresden was bombed to virtual non-existence, killing "over one hundred thousand human beings" months before the first use of the atomic bomb. This was reported by the Allies as routine news: "Last night our planes attacked Dresden. All planes returned safely." Later, Vonnegut met a bombardier who took part in the attack and could only say "[w]e hated to do it."
The night of bombing, Vonnegut and other American privates were in an underground meat locker in a slaughterhouse, which turned out to be one of the best shelters in the city. Planes swept back and forth through the night, saturation bombing. With the destruction of their camp, the Americans were marched by elderly and disable veterans who were their guards to a camp at the outskirts of town that held South African prisoners. One guard before he left determined that his wife, two children, and both parents were killed in the bombing. He shared his only remaining cigarette with Vonnegut. Instead of a cold, clear day, they marched through the smoke and heat of the nearby inferno alongside Germans carrying their wounded or dead. After a week without work housed with the South Africans, the Americans were marched again to the hardest hit area, desolate and haunted. Their job was to search the rubble for bodies, of which they found many in ineffective bomb shelters, largely women and children who were then burned in mass funeral pyres in the parks. When it became clear there were too many to dispose of this way, a man with a flame-thrower would go into uncovered shelters and cremate the remains where they were. Ukrainians who had defected to the Germans were in charge of the operation, stripping bodies of valuables and celebrating when wine cellars were uncovered. As time grew on, compassion for the dead among the Americans gave way to a callous indifference as corpse removal simply became a job.
A few days later, Allied planes returned to drop not bombs but leaflets which explained that the bombing was meant to target the railway yards which carried massive amounts of military traffic and that "[d]estruction of anything other than military objectives was unintentional, unavoidable fortunes of war." While the entire city and its population, three miles from the leaflets' stated target, was destroyed, the rail yards were already operational again within 48 hours, nor had any of the bridges across the Elbe River been made unusable in any way. Vonnegut argues that destruction of legitimate military targets is an essential part of war, but that the attitude of America toward its enemies allowed "the spirit of revenge" to justify as much killing as possible. Seemingly no one on the Allied side contemplated how this brief, minor tactical victory would have consequences far into the future, not only destroying an historic city that was largely anti-Nazi, but one rich with food and hospitals that would be desperately needed in the post-war rebuilding. While it is true that the Allies fought on the side of right and Germany and Japan on the side of wrong, Vonnegut nonetheless calls the wanton destruction of civilian populations "blasphemous," regardless of what the enemy many have done first. American democracy has learned how to fight dirty and mercilessly, producing war simply for the sake of war. When Russians soldiers came upon the P.O.W.s after the German surrender, they complimented the Americans for the fine work done by their bombers. But Vonnegut says he would give his life to have saved Dresden for future generations, which is "how everyone should feel about every city on Earth."[1]
Background[]
One of Vonnegut's earliest works, he submitted it to editors at Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, The American Mercury, and The Yale Review, with no success. While the existing manuscript is undated, its return address of "3972 ½ Ellis Avenue, Chicago 15, Ill." would date it between fall of 1945 and spring of 1947 when Vonnegut and his wife Jane lived there while attending the University of Chicago. It was rediscovered when he sold most of his professional papers to the Lilly Library of Indiana University, Bloomington.[2]