the legends that some German cities were spared from bombing in WWII for some emotional reasons

[Hari Seldon]

Took a long time but was rebuilt. Can't say that for the millions murdered by the Nazi's.

 

[Rumpel]

 

[Rumpel]

a symbol for Dresden:

On 13 February 1945, Allied forces began the bombing of Dresden in World War II. The church withstood two days and nights of the attacks, and the eight interior sandstone pillars supporting the large dome held up long enough for the evacuation of 300 people who had sought shelter in the church crypt, before succumbing to the heat generated by some 650,000 incendiary bombs that were dropped on the city. The temperature surrounding and inside the church eventually reached 1,000 °C (1,830 °F).[1] The dome finally collapsed at 10 a.m. on 15 February. The pillars glowed bright red and exploded; the outer walls shattered and nearly 6,000 tons of stone plunged to earth, penetrating the massive floor as it fell.

The building vanished from Dresden's skyline, and the blackened stones would lie in wait in a pile in the centre of the city for the next 45 years as Communist rule enveloped what was now East Germany. Shortly after the end of World War II, residents of Dresden had already begun salvaging unique stone fragments from the Church of Our Lady and numbering them for future use in reconstruction. Popular sentiment discouraged the authorities from clearing the ruins away to make a car park. In 1966, the remnants were officially declared a "memorial against war", and state-controlled commemorations were held there on the anniversaries of the destruction of Dresden.

Frauenkirche, Dresden - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[mrjurrs]

Emotions played a role in the decision not to drop the atomic bomb on Kyoto, however - American military leaders predicted that doing so would invoke a viscerally negative emotional reaction from the world and therefore hinder the US war effort against Japan.

That is strategy, not emotion.

 

[HK.227]

First thought that came to my mind as well.

The people of Dresden were at least in part the victims of a most dangerous adversary.
A huge and breathtakingly expensive institution (Allied Bomber Command) that didn't really have anything left to do, but wanted to maintain it's power and importance, and so succumbed to the temptation of finding more or less spurious ways to stay relevant.

Bomber Harris always seemed to me to be that kind of person that is invaluable in an emergency, but which you really have to keep a close eye on. Because at heart they may be complete psychopaths.

 

[Rumpel]

only a legend