Heinrich G

Heinrich G

Heinrich G's account of the events at Bettenhäuser Straße 6.

1944-03-13

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Record 27

BKasselVdObmv10027

Translated from the original in German: Present is Heinrich G., born 30 December 1926, now of Wißmannstraße 61, and makes the following statement:
I was at home when the alarm came. I went down to the cellar together with my parents and my four younger siblings. All the people living in the house were there. No one thought a raid would actually happen. Everyone was quite lively. A short while later the first bombs were dropping and women and children became quite flustered. We had a fair bit of trouble to keep the cellar door closed because of the air pressure. When the bombs dropped more closely, the cellar door was pushed in and we had a through draft. Shortly after, smoke started to get into the cellar. Then the people from the neighbouring cellars came through to ours through the breakthroughs. Because the breakthroughs had been opened, lots of smoke came in. The room was overcrowded, we tried to escape through the breakthroughs. That was impossible, however, because all the stairwells in the neighbourhood had collapsed. A great panic broke out as people had lost hope that they would get out again. Then I had a look whether we could still escape through the entrance hall. As I reached it, our stairs collapsed too. It was impossible for those trapped below to get out. Our front door was lying in the doorway. I tried to get out through the flat on the ground floor. The tenant had, however, closed the shutters. They had been splashed with phosphorous and were on fire. I had to climb over the burning door and thus made it into the street.
Here beams were strewn around and were burning, masonry and windows were falling down. I ran through Mühlengasse to Holzmarkt. People who had saved their belongings, fled across the Fulda Bridge to the Renthof. I also made my way across the bridge and down to the right, to the Schlagd. I had been looking for a boat without success but met a friend and the two of us battled our way to the Holländische Platz: Altmarkt, Fischgasse, Artilleriestraße, Bremer Straße, past the school at the embankment to Holländische Platz. The raid had stopped already. This was a seething cauldron, there was fire on all sides. Only women and children were allowed into the public shelters of the Henschel factory. So we ran through Schlachthofstraße to Mombachstraße, past the cemetery to Wolfhager Straße. Fleeing people and fire were everywhere. In Mombachstraße a bakery had been opened and the fleeing were given bread.
My family was dug out eight days after the raid and buried. I am the only survivor.