It seems appropriate to me to give a few introductory explanations at the beginning. It is naturally clear to me and probably to many other Germans, that terrible horrors had happened to other nations under Hitler's regime. No one can completely acquit themselves of it. However what happened on the night of July 27th and 28th July 1943 to Hamburg, was in itself unique.This bombing of the population of Hamburg was planned a long time previously, and was unforeseen in its monstrous consequences.1)
The time of the air-raid warning on the night of the terrible firestorm in Hamburg was 11:40pm. A hot hurricane storm swept through Hamburg and destroyed streets and hurled everything which wasn't riveted or nailed down through the air...charred pieces of wood, tattered pieces of clothing,burnt paper and foliage. The sun was not to be seen and there was a 7 km high black mushroom of smoke over the city. It was the 28th July 1943, the day after a colossal fire storm had raged through the streets, a firestorm such as no other German city during the war had ever experienced. At times the air speed over the houses amounted to 45m/sec, and at 7 km higher it was 60m/sec. On these streets through which the firestorm raged, the tops of the trees bent almost to the ground. There raged a hurricane of extreme force. At the Berliner Tor in the Wallstrasse, trees with a diameter of 30cm were simply uprooted, and in other streets uprooted trees had a diameter of almost 50cm. It raged like a kind of wind vortex through many streets, and the people who ran in there were, in the blink of an eye, incinerated as if they were in a fiery furnace. There remained either a little heap of ashes or one found a black mummified figure, very little more remained. In the centre of the firestorm a temperature of 800° C. was measured. 2)
The bombing for us Hamburg people began with all its terror. There were nights we didn't take our clothes off at all, since we had to go to the air-raid shelter two or three times. Anyway, the suitcase with the important papers and the most necessary possessions remained below in the cellar. On such nights there was no thought of sleeping, despite the beds erected in the shelter. Nevertheless for many, and also for me, the next day was a workday and we had to go to work again. For years our lives were certainly gripped by the fear of being hit by a bomb, the fear of waiting for something that could come from above. Nevertheless, life went on, as well as it could. There were still cinemas, concerts, and theaters, and no one suspected at that time that in the summer of 1943, a dreadful catastrophe would descend upon us. It was so appalling and unique, that probably no one who survived it, even after 50 years, would ever forget this inferno. There are still many people today who still cannot talk about it, so horrible was the experience.
Read Full Article »