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Interview with Franco Nocchieri
Franco Nocchieri recalls his early years as an orphan living in several different towns in the Province of Pavia. He describes the bombing of the Voghera railway station, which started while he was heading to school. He goes on to explain how he and…
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 Barbara Bulleyment
Barbara Bulleyment worked at a department store in Boston until she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and was, initially, stationed at 16 Maintenance Unit Stafford and then 209 Maintenance Unit at Broughton. She recounts her life as an equipment…
Interview with Rob Carter
Rob Carter was born in the village of Scampton and reminisces about his life on the land before the war. He recalls the foundation of RAF Dunholme Lodge, which his house overlooked. During the war, he served in the Auxiliary Fire Service. He was…
Interview with Dirk Bosch
Dirk Bosch was eight years old when the German army occupied his hometown of Amsterdam. He describes what life was like for him during this time. He tells of seeing Dutch Jews rounded up and deported. He describes the hunger of the time and the…
Interview with Maria Teresa Boazzelli
Maria Teresa Boazzelli describes the bombing of Frascati on 8 September 1943 and provides an account of life inside an improvised shelter: people praying and screaming after explosions. She explains how the Germans had been expecting the bombing and…
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 Burckhard Kuck
Burckhard Kuck (b. 1925) tells the story of a 63-year-old mirror, a present from his fellow inmates when he was detained in a prisoner of war camp in England. He tells how the object reminds him of the lack of mirrors in the camp and of the fact that…
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 Irma Ferranti
Irma Ferranti recalls a day when there were four bombings in Turin. She gives a complete account of the last one and how she ran through the street in search of shelter, before trying to take cover under a bridge. She goes on to remember the sound of…
Interview with Eraldo Bessone
Eraldo Bessone (b. 1925) remembers the bombing of the Borgo San Paolo neighbourhood in Turin and how, due to the extensive damage it suffered, people started calling it the 'Stalingrad neighbourhood'. He also describes how the extensive damage led to…
Interview with Maria Caterina Siccardi
Maria Caterina Siccardi (b. 1924) remembers attending the funeral of a young soldier and her fear of being bombed. She also describes the makeshift shelter her grandfather built and how she rushed to take shelter in it every time an aircraft…
Interview with Lidia Fabris and Alfonso Fridiani
Lidia Fabris and Alfonso Fridiani remember 'Pippo'. Alfonso Fridiani recalls how his truck was saved from one of 'Pippo’s' attacks by a partisan. Lidia Fabris remembers the fear she felt when 'Pippo' fired off flares. She describes an incident in…
Interview with Piercarlo Debernardi
Piercarlo Debernardi (b. 1928) describes how his father built the family home next to the convent of La Visitazione in Turin, a house now considered a landmark in the city. He gives an account of wartime building regulations, stressing the…
Interview with Delia Cardini
Delia Cardini recalls her childhood as an orphan in a boarding school and how, at the age of 10, she moved to Milan. She remembers how the Fascists used castor oil to humiliate their opponents. Delia also describes how, after a night bombing, she was…
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,…
Interview with Silvana Morganti
Silvana Morganti (b. 1924) recalls the bombing of the San Lorenzo neighbourhood in Rome, in which she describes the sight of dead people, a destroyed shelter, and children waiting for their dead mothers to return. Silvana also explains that she…
Interview with Matteo Basso
Matteo Basso (b. 1934) recalls some foods he ate during the war, at school for breakfast, he used to eat a slice of polenta and two figs. He also talks about his experience in being caught out in the open when a formation of aircraft dropped bombs…