In the final winter of World War II, as Allied and Soviet forces closed in on Nazi Germany, a single question haunted military planners: How do you break a nation already on its knees? The answer would lead to one of the war’s most controversial decisions—the firebombing of Dresden, a Baroque jewel known as "the Florence of the Elbe."

Through haunting narrative storytelling and incisive historical analysis, this podcast unravels the calculus behind the inferno. We follow Elisabeth Schneider, a ballerina dancing in the doomed Semperoper, as her city balances between defiance and oblivion. Meanwhile, in war rooms from London to Yalta, strategists weigh morality against military necessity, forging a plan that will leave tens of thousands dead and a cultural legacy in ruins.

A story of beauty and brutality, A City of Ash asks what happens when strategy collides with tragedy—and who pays the price when history’s gears turn.