Waving black flags and carrying banners, thousands of neo-Nazis marched in Dresden on Sunday, marring the official 60th anniversary commemoration of one of the fiercest Allied bombing raids of World War II. Later up to 50,000 residents, wearing white roses in a symbol of reconciliation, gathered in the city?s historic heart to light candles in memory of all victims of war.

?We want to make clear that we in Dresden are for democracy and remembrance and don?t want this event to be disturbed by others,? said Saxony state premier Georg Milbradt. Police said around 5,000 people joined the march in the eastern German city, making it one of the biggest far-right demonstrations since the war. Around 70 people, including anti-fascist protesters, were arrested after minor clashes.

The sight of far-right marchers angered and dismayed many residents, who later spelt out in flickering candle-lights ?this city is sick of Nazis? in letters five meters high. Dresden, dubbed the Florence of the north and untouched by bombing until months before the end of World War II, was nearly destroyed by two waves of British bombers on the night of Feb. 13, 1945. US planes blasted the city the next day. The official death toll from the raids is put at around 35,000 but many survivors believe the actual number was higher as bodies were reduced to ashes in the ensuing firestorm.

Before the march, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder pledged to stop far-right groups exploiting the anniversary and portraying Germany as a war victim while ignoring Nazi atrocities. Thousands of police, backed by water cannon, were drafted into Dresden to stop clashes. Far-right supporters ? banned from wearing bomber jackets and boots ? marched the to music of Wagner, carrying balloons and placards saying: ?Allied bomb terror ? then as now. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden and today Baghdad. No forgiveness, no forgetting.? Several hundred anti-fascist activists chanted ?Nazis out? from neighboring streets and threw pink paper aeroplanes with the markings of Britain?s Royal Air Force.