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- Spatial Coverage is exactly "Germany"
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Interview with Derry Derrington
Dr Arnold Pearce Derrington grew up in Cornwall and joined the University Air Squadron at Exeter. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1942 and completed training at RAF Ansty, South Africa, RAF West Freugh and RAF Moreton in the Marsh, where he trained…
Interview with Charly Pfeifer
Charly Pfeifer recounts his experiences of the bombing of Betzdorf an der Sieg, a small town not far from the Ruhr. He explains the strategic importance of the city, due to the presence of locomotive works. He recalls taking shelter from the bombs in…
Interview with James Flowers
Horace James Flowers was born and grew up in Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire. He became an apprentice butcher before being released to volunteer for the Royal Air Force in 1944. He trained as an air gunner at RAF Bridgnorth, RAF Wigsley and RAF Syerston…
Interview with Gerda Gentner
Gerda Gentner (b. 1934) recalls the first bombing of Dresden on 7 October 1944, and describes how she, unsuccessfully, tried to persuade a young boy to take shelter with her in the basement; she recalls her feelings when she heard that he had died as…
Interview with Agnes Stocker
Agnes Stocker (b. 1932) recounts her evacuation from her hometown and the journey to Ueckermünde. Agnes tells how she got separated from her sister, her brother and her cousin, who followed the road to Swinemünde, while she, her mother and her aunt…
Interview with Brigitte Terboven
Brigitte Terboven (b.1930) recalls the bombing of Essen and the dropping of an air mine by a British bomber, trying to evade a German night fighter. The bomb hit the ground about 20 metres from her home, which collapsed like a house of cards. She…
Interview with Jörg Funfoff
Jörg Funfoff (b. 1942) recalls his experience of being a young boy at Heiligensee, a Berlin suburb on the flight path of approaching bombers. He tells how he was the first to hear the bombers approaching before they are in sight (a fact he was proud…
Interviews with Jaun Schauerte
Jaun Schauerte (b.1936) recalls rushing to the shelter with a suitcase and a back pack. He remembers one night when his grandmother fell under the heavy weight of the rucksack and nobody stopped to help her. He also recalls the Bremen bombing, while…
Interview with Margarete Meyer
Margarete Meyer (b. 1936) describes the Dresden bombing, 13 February 1945, and recalls how her mother reacted to the alarm. She rushed to the shelter and took some belongings, including what she thought was her confirmation dress. Margarete explains…
Interview with Inge Heinrich
Inge Heinrich (b.1922) describes the bombing of the Berlin borough of Kreuzberg and recalls how she had dreamt of being buried alive under the rubble but surviving in the end. She tells of how the patent agency building, in which she was working, was…
Interview with Christoph Wagner Brausewetter
Christoph Wagner Brausewetter (b.1929) recalls the hardships civilians endured inside a shelter, the risks involved and the fact they spent more time there than at home. He maintains that the worst year was 1943, when aircraft were no longer able to…
Interview with Maria Domanovszky
Maria Domanovszky (b. 1937) tells how she threw herself into a swampy ditch when under fire and how she lay down praying and hoping to get back home safely. She describes German soldiers with torn and dirty uniforms escaping from a burning forest.…
Interview with Giovanni Monchiero
Giovanni Monchiero (b. 1923) gives a detailed account of his experience in labour camps in Germany: he started working at a train station, but it was bombed. He then moved to the Opel garage, but it was also bombed. He describes an occasion when,…
The Bombing of Munich
The ruins of buildings and industrial plants in Munich are silhouetted against a wall of flames and smoke. At the top of the frame, a portion of blue sky appears to be full of aircraft, some of them crashing in flames. Anti-aircraft batteries, a…
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Prisoners are visible behind barbed wire, wearing blue and white striped clothes and black shoes. A German soldier is guarding them, armed with a rifle. There are two huts. The white building has a large chimney with black smoke billowing out of it.…
Bombing of Dresden
Men, women and children flee in panic surrounded by fire and destruction. One man falls to the ground near a pylon. Two ships are visible in the background and the nearer of the two has taken a direct hit and exploded in flames. At the top of the…
The American vanguard attacks a bridge on the Rhine
Two firing tanks are crossing the bridge. Five men are jumping into the river, whilst others are being killed and are throwing their guns into the air. On the bank to the left of the bridge, men are advancing behind the tanks, whilst on the opposite…
The Eder, Möhne and Sorpe operation
A Lancaster flies over the explosion of an Upkeep bouncing bomb against a dam. A second aircraft has been hit by anti-aircraft fire and is plunging towards the water, engulfed in flames and smoke. A third Lancaster is visible on the right with a bomb…
Interview with Helga Cent-Velden
Helga Cent-Velden (b. 1926) recounts her life in Berlin, living under constant threat of bombing. She describes how her father tried to locate a suitable air raid shelter for the family and, especially, how he ruled out the Shell House because of a…
Interview with Eva Brossmer
Eva Brossmer (b. 1925) remembers the incessant bombing of Berlin by the Allied Forces and explains how she and her mother fled to Südharz, trying to avoid the advancing Russians. She explains how German broadcasts did not mention their advance and…
Interview with Renate Rothaler
Renate Rothaler (b. 1937) recounts her wartime experiences in Gotha, where she lived with her mother and sister, while her father was drafted. She mentions a bombing in spring 1944 when she watched ‘silver birds’ that soon started to drop bombs, a…
Interview with Marino Ferrari
Marino Ferrari recalls his early life as an engineer at Pavia arsenal, and later in Catanzaro and Verona. He describes his life as an Italian military internee in East Prussia, working in different lumberyards. Marino speaks with affection of the…
Interview with Erika Gautsch
Erika Gautsch (b. 1928) describes her wartime experience of being inside a shelter and the people she met there: an old sick man with his wife, who was incessantly reciting the rosary, and children clinging to their mothers. She describes tension and…
Interview with Gerlinde Keller
Gerlinde Keller (b. 1939) was evacuated in 1942 from Munich to the Altmühltal, in a purpose-built settlement where she lived with her aunt. She explains how the growing intensity of the bombings had made the city unsafe for children and how they…