truly, the message from dresden to the world was one of reconciliation and peace. >> in dresden as the city marks 70 years since the firebombing of that city. the refugees packing dresden were mainly mothers and children in the elderly fleeing the red army, seeking to reach american lines in the west. >> many of them were among the victims. we spoke with two women who were girls at the time who have lost family members and friends. >> as we are about to hear, the fear was not just of being burnt alive above ground, but of being buried alive beneath the rubble. >> these firebombs -- they just kept on falling. that's how it sounded. i have always said it was like the sound of someone dumping potatoes or coals on top of you. that was a very familiar sound to us back then. >> when bombs are falling and going off right above you, they make sounds no one can imitate. not even the best film director. >> the noise of the experience shaking to the core, the feeling you get is hard to describe. >> you just have to turn off your feelings and can only wait to see what happens. i cannot even descri

i feel good here in dresden in germany. >> my favorite part of dresden is -- >> i'm a tour guide and we're here in the heart of dresden. >> tourists from all over the world come to dresden to see the historic city center. but ever since the weekly anti-islam protests became a talking point in international media tourists have started asking different questions. >> i do a lot of tours in english. the foreign visitors often ask me if it's safe to walk the streets at night or on mondays, especially people who look like they could be foreign. they don't feel safe to go out at night. you can see that as a tourist guide when you get asked these questions. >> the tourist sector has seen a downturn. one person says bookings have dropped for the summer. she's worried about the damage to the image of her hometown. she hopes that dresden will wake up. >> it's a good opportunity to discuss these topics. the city has to take a stand and say how they're going to treat people who come here. are we just here for the tourists that bring money into the city? or are we also here for the people that wor

dresden's now home to half a million people.ery year, they commemorate the fire bombing, a chance to remember and reflect. >> dresden is just a little part of the second world war and the second world war consists of many, many thousands of little parts. so it is just an example of war and of course, it made sense, because dresden was part of the enemy and you have to hit the enemy to end the second world war. >> reporter: hard now to imagine how many died in this square. she still has nightmares, but the city is rebuilt. for her, its stones, a reminder. no more war, she says. never again. most of today's commemorations will take place in and around this building here. this is the church of our lady. and a little later on thousands of people are expected survivors among them, to join hands and form a human chain, all the way around the historic heart of this city. it's a chance of course to remember the dead but a chance to reflect on what all that means. and when you ask people here about that some of them will point you toward

on february 13 and 14, rdf and then american bombers attacked dresden.xplosives and incendiary devices created a vast firestorm. an estimated 25,000 people were killed. anita and nora were childhood friends in the city. nora's family survived. a need us -- anita's were killed. >> my parents suffocated in the cellar and out of the 14 people there, i was the only survivor. it was terrifying. at first i thought it was the end of the war, but when it did not stop, i believed it was the end of the world. >> on our streets, all i saw was rubble rubble, rubble, burnt houses, and people searching for love once. they had no belongings anymore and the dead were everywhere. >> dresden was known to be crowded with refugees fleeing the soviet advanced run the east. there were also thousands of slave laborers and prisoners of war like victor greg. >> i thought i did not stand a chance. i was just went straight up into the air. i've seen that. i've seen bodies burning in the air. i've seen people get stuck in rivers of tar which have melted, and they try to cross it, a

. >>> and -- ♪ >> remembering dresden.embering one of the most deadly attacks during the second world war. time and be given a chance to agree with our partners the fact that we have a freshman date >> the new al jazeera america primetime. get the real news you've been looking for. at 7:00, a thorough wrapup of the day's events. then at 8:00, john seigenthaler digs deeper into the stories of the day. and at 9:00, get a global perspective on the news. weeknights, on al jazeera america . ♪ >>> again, welcome back a reminder of the top stories here. argentina's president is to be formally investigated over allegely blocking the investigation of iran's involvement in the bombing of a jewish center. >>> the taliban has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a shia mosque in pakistan. >>> and chadian troops battle boko haram in nigeria, the group has launched its first attack on chadian soil. up to ten people were killed in the attack on a village. >>> u.s. president barack obama is due to announce a new executive order o

as you can see the people of dresden have of course rebuilt. an estimated 125,000 people were killed. >>> the british archbishop of canterbury apologized for the bombing. >>> a man rammed his car into the front gate, a chinese military police officer was injured. the driver said he thought someone was trying to kill him and he wanted to attract attention by crashing. he seemed confused and was speaking incoherently. there was no sign the crash was politically motivated. >> as we look at stories making headlines. the strait times say arc archaeologists have found treasuretrophy a headless buddhist figurine and finds from india, paints a big picture from the year 1300 to 1600. >> they think it's important for singapore that it's precolonial. before the british. >>> the new zealand herald says, half 26 people on board are new zealanders, the rescue will involve a remotely operated vehicle to check the propellers. the conditions are pretty good for the rescue but the waters are always treacherous. >> the question is are those propellers usable or n

stuart: this is a color facsimile of the dresden codex -- actual size, real colors. it's made on, like the others, on bark paper sized with lime plaster, on which the images were painted with fine hair brushes and pigment in about oh, five or six different colors. keach: many of these books were discovered by the sixteenth century spanish. they were said to be filled with genealogies, prophesies and religious beliefs. but to the spanish conquerors, they were blasphemous. in 1562, bishop diego de landa ordered them destroyed. "we found a large number of books in these characters "and as they contained nothing "in which there were not to be seen "superstition and lies of the devil, "we burned them all, "which caused them much affliction." ironically, a book by bishop landa himself proved crucial to the understanding of maya writing. stuart: and in it is everything that he observed in yucatan about the maya about their ceremonial cycles, their ritual calendars. he even had pictures of the glyphs drawn to put in the manuscript. and without that we would know very little

. >> he made news last year when a protest attracted 20,000 people in dresden. this protests have all but died out in recent weeks. >> to ukraine now and they agreed to a cease-fire twice and yet the fighting between government troops and separatist forces continues. the ukrainian government says soldiers had been killed and 10 were wounded in the fighting. >> the two sides are supposed to be withdrawing their heavy weapons, but there is no confirmation it's actually happening. meanwhile, diplomatic efforts are ongoing. the foreign ministers in ukraine, france and germany are due to have talks on tuesday. >> amidst the dangers of war ukrainian soldiers are grateful for reminders of humanity. these pictures are a way to escape the daily reality of the conflict. >> lots of children sent as presents for valentine's day. these are mine. i like the drawings best and the cross so that we can pray everything will be ok. >> despite the cease-fire, there are reports of fighting going on and there's no sign of an agreed pullback of heavy weapons from the line. the ukraini

information in january that terrorists were planning atacks in the capital berlin and the eastern city of dresden. >>> world leaders are tackling another extremist group in the middle eastern country of yemen. the u.n. security council has unanimously adopted a resolution demanding the withdrawal of shia militants from government institutions. hoouth think militants based in northern recommenden took control of the capital sanaa earlier this month. this led to the collapse of the government security has deteriorated as the houthis clash on the arabian peninsula. council members are calling on the houthis to engage in u.n.-led peace talks. they also expressed concern that the militant group al qaeda in the arabian peninsula may gain ground from their power base in the country. sunni majority nations in the area such as saudi arabia are calling for military intervention in yemen. >>> danish police are looking into the background of a man they believe attacked a synagogue and an event to promote free speech. they say the suspect opened fire on saturday in copenhagen and killed at least two people. a

brendan: this is in dresden appeared shortly after the war you can see cattle grazing.here in 1992, it was still -- it still looked like that. you could walk over the rubble. there are places where the top of the building had collapsed, and 50 years in east germany, they had built offices in the lower floors which had collapsed. it has been rebuilt and they did an extraordinary job he see the stones they tacked them, stone by stone, figured out where they fit in as many original stones made it into the reconstruction. it is gorgeous. tom: our second photo from amsterdam. this haunting photograph, a turkish photographer one 2 awards, the winning want to fix a wounded girl during clashes in istanbul in march of last year. the antigovernment slogans were spoken's -- spoken,. brendan: so much has happened in turkey in the last year. tom: what a year for astronomy. our number one photo nasa releasing a five-year time lapse of the sun condensed into three minutes. i do not know if you have seen this but it is an extraordinary lesson. brendan: the spacex loss we saw yesterday,

this is great because they go up to size 26 and just this dresden anymore is really in for this springper versatile and the whole look is under $65. >> really really nice. those are so cute. >> i love the sandals. >> metallic, great. >> looking good. all right. so ultimately ava & viv, the philosophy behind it is affordable. is there a look or way or advice you can give viewers about how to put it together. >> the great thing about ava and viv, it's designed in-house so a cohesive collection. you'll find different things you can wear as separates but go well together. >> like garanimals. >> all the tops go with all the bottoms. >> gabi we thank you so much. lady thank you very much. two looks from a line. >> i'm wearing it too. >> i was going to say. i had a feeling. ava & viv available in target and online right now. for full details on the looks you just saw and more of the collection go to goodmorningamerica.com on yahoo! thanks for being with us. thanks ladies. >> it was amazing. >> stay with us because when we get back breakout band misterwives, there they are performing live on "

during the second world war, we launched daylight bombing raids over dresden.hy today we want to sit back and launch bombing campaigns with 20 or 30 or 50 aircraft instead of 700 and catch them out in the desert like we could have an completely destroy them two months ago is beyond me. we decided to sit back and let isis move into the cities when we could have caught them in the desert. secondly, bill o'reilly like him or not, came up with an interesting hypothesis the other day, which is why do we not hire a mercenary army and have them clear out this whole mess over there? i am a retired marine. i know a lot of guys who have been in the fight who would be willing to go back. the problem is they cannot fight for the peshmerga, because there is no money in it. host: thank you. guest: interesting points. in munitions i think the answer you would hear from the pentagon is that this is a new era with our more advanced technology. the reason we had hundreds of planes and larger air formations was that these were dumb bombs that were dropped from up high. in just a,

if you look at this right-wing party that is forming out of dresden, one of its stances is that the muslimsnto the democratic values that the west upholds, and so we've got to make a decision on what balances it do we strive in order to embrace muslims now living in europe and in america? and the values that they hold versus the values that we've held for hundreds of years? and there's a compromise to be had on that it's not a copout saying we're drawing conclusions, we're just having a conversation, and it is a conversation that western civilization is going have but the question is what is gained by drawing a cartoon of the prophet muhammad its head on a dog or the prophet muhammad and, in a sexually suggestive position? or for that case let's take to christianity, jesus on a cross -- what's gained by that? >> well it depends on the cartoon. depends on the image. look, the "new yorker" got in hot water 25 years ago, art spiegel did a cover coincided with tax day and easter and the bunny was crucified against his 1040. some thought it was successful, funny, some people not. art spiegelman