Maria, V

Maria, V

Maria V's account of the events at Wilhelmstraße 2 ½

1944-02-18

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Record 3

BKasselVdObmv10003

Translated from the original in German: Present is Mrs Maria V., Wilhelmstraße 2 ½, 1st floor and makes the following statement:
By about half eight, we had alarm and then the shooting started. I was always the first in the cellar which amused the other tenants because of my fearfulness. Soon, the rear building was burning, after an hour or so. My husband and my son tried to save the building but came back after ten minutes. My husband had burnt his hands. He sank on a chair and said: “I can’t go on.” Then the men tried to open the breakthrough to Klingebeils’. Their house must have collapsed. From there we just had smoke come through and a voice said to me: Bend down, bend down!” I bent over, always further down, where there was still some good air. Then I passed out. When I woke up again, I guess that I had been lying there for hours, I could see that everything behind me was on fire. I was lying in the breakthrough to Klingebeils. My feet were getting hot. I can’t remember where I got out whether through the Stadtparkgarten or through Wilhelmstraße.
Everywhere on the Friedrichsplatz were dead bodies. I searched for the others everywhere, I thought, maybe somebody will come past here. But no one came. Then I went to the train station because I could no longer bear the sight of all these dead people. There I asked someone where I could find something to drink because my mouth was burning. It was already daylight. I’d guess that it was about ten. The city centre did not burn any more, only in Kölnische Straße a few houses were still in flames. Then I went to the town hall where I was given a coffee. I thought to return to where I came from, Lippstadt, but I was told that it would be better if I looked for the missing first. I therefore went back to Wilhelmstraße. There, I met my brother-in-law, the furrier Hugo Meßling, he had been in the Stadtpark where he had been on duty as an air raid warden. That’s how he was saved. All the others had been killed. My husband too. I did not want to hear anything of the sort, I was the only one saved, as through a miracle. Because that inner voice had been saying ‘bend over, bend over, bend over’ and because I had to vomit twice. But my husband and family have all been killed, except Herr Meßling. I did not want to know and believe that.