Germany's president laid a wreath Friday at Coventry Cathedral in central England, symbolically atoning for the atrocities of World War II as his country and the United Kingdom seek to bolster an alliance to combat the new war raging in Europe. Frank-Walter Steinmeier's pilgrimage commemorates the Nazi bombing of Coventry on the night of November 14, 1940, which destroyed the 14th-century Gothic cathedral, leaving behind a roofless ruin that stands as a reminder of the ravages of war.
At least 568 people were killed and more than half of Coventry's homes were damaged or destroyed in what was the single most concentrated attack on a British city during the war. Britain was represented at the event by the Duke of Kent, who has long fostered UK-German reconciliation. He served as the royal patron of the Dresden Trust, which seeks to build bonds between the people of Britain and Dresden following the Allied bombing that destroyed the German city's historic centre and killed an estimated 25,000 people in February 1945.
