Luise M
Title
Luise M
Description
Luise M's account of the events at Packhofstraße 18.
Date
1944-03-10
Coverage
Language
Type
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
Record 17
BKasselVdObmv10017
Transcription
Translated from the original in German: Present is Mrs Luise M., [formerly] of Packhofstraße 18, [now] of Hindenburgstraße 25, Waldkappel and makes the following statement:
Well, we went into the shelter, didn’t we? And then they closed the portholes, Mr Trinter did that, and he even said we shouldn’t be frightened, nothing was going to happen. The English came and dropped, immediately the lamps were gone, the lights went out. We heard the air raid wardens shout that we should stay calm and it was reasonably quiet except for the little children who screamed every time a bomb dropped. Then the air raid wardens said we should not talk so much as this used too much oxygen. After about two hours (the raid was over) a warden came and said: “People, it is as it is, you have to get out because downstairs on the ground floor people are already losing consciousness.” We should take courage, the fire looked worse than it was in reality. We were advised to make our head scarfs and blankets wet before we went out. According to regulations the ground floor was emptied first, then the first floor and so on. It was all done properly. When we saw the terrible fire as we came out, some people started to waver but more courageous men shouted: “Over here, towards the Fulda [River]!” In the river, we got stuck in the mud because the roller weir had also been hit. We were on the lower side of the Fulda Bridge, where the ships were moored, at the Schlagd. Then the police came and drove us away from there because the houses were falling down and we made our way along the Fulda and the outer wall of the old fortifications to the Aue [park]. That’s where we stayed until morning. When it dawned, I started to look for my family and found the two children Franz and Elisabeth N. on the lawn (see record 18). I went off to look for my sister-in-law but did not find her. I then went to the Pinne. I saw several people I knew lying there but of my sister-in-law no trace can be found. I then searched for my sister and her daughter, they had been in the cellar of Wiedersich & Co (Minna Kurz and Luise Christ, her illegitimate child).
Well, we went into the shelter, didn’t we? And then they closed the portholes, Mr Trinter did that, and he even said we shouldn’t be frightened, nothing was going to happen. The English came and dropped, immediately the lamps were gone, the lights went out. We heard the air raid wardens shout that we should stay calm and it was reasonably quiet except for the little children who screamed every time a bomb dropped. Then the air raid wardens said we should not talk so much as this used too much oxygen. After about two hours (the raid was over) a warden came and said: “People, it is as it is, you have to get out because downstairs on the ground floor people are already losing consciousness.” We should take courage, the fire looked worse than it was in reality. We were advised to make our head scarfs and blankets wet before we went out. According to regulations the ground floor was emptied first, then the first floor and so on. It was all done properly. When we saw the terrible fire as we came out, some people started to waver but more courageous men shouted: “Over here, towards the Fulda [River]!” In the river, we got stuck in the mud because the roller weir had also been hit. We were on the lower side of the Fulda Bridge, where the ships were moored, at the Schlagd. Then the police came and drove us away from there because the houses were falling down and we made our way along the Fulda and the outer wall of the old fortifications to the Aue [park]. That’s where we stayed until morning. When it dawned, I started to look for my family and found the two children Franz and Elisabeth N. on the lawn (see record 18). I went off to look for my sister-in-law but did not find her. I then went to the Pinne. I saw several people I knew lying there but of my sister-in-law no trace can be found. I then searched for my sister and her daughter, they had been in the cellar of Wiedersich & Co (Minna Kurz and Luise Christ, her illegitimate child).
Citation
Vermisstensuchstelle des Oberbürgermeisters der Stadt Kassel, “Luise M,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 16, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/7481.
Item Relations
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