Heinrich H, Martha H and Lothar S

Heinrich H, Martha H and Lothar S

Heinrich H , Martha H's account of the events at lower Königsstraße 77.

1944-03-15

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Record 34

BKasselVdObmv10034

Translated from the original in German: Present are Mr Heinrich H. and Mrs Martha H. (mother) and Lothar S. (eight years old) and state:
We were having dinner on the first floor of our temporary accommodation, the three of us and our daughter, Anna S., née H. Then the alarm sounded. We therefore went with our suitcases to the cellar. We were the first ones there. Over a period of time, the others appeared. In the meantime, we had run up the stairs again and fetched two more suitcases. By then, all the others had also come down, Miss Schaumberg, Mrs Schmidt, Mrs Ahrens, the Brunner family without their daughter, with a six-year old boy. They have also gone missing, just as my daughter. The air raid warden Döring was not present. After about half an hour, we could not bear it any more in our cellar because of the smoke. Our rear building had been hit by many bombs. It was really thick smoke.
We went through the breakthroughs, Königstraße downward towards Moltkestraße but we only got as far as no. 81. We couldn’t go any further and had to turn back and we got out at 79. There was a gateway where we got out. In that cellar were about 25 people including women with small children. Three of us went out when we heard our daughter shouting for help. Everything was burning, all the doors, we couldn’t do anything and we couldn’t turn back. We ran down on pavement on the right side. My daughter had trouble with her heart and was probably also frightened to run through the fire. Maybe she turned back to the cellar where the people still were. Whether she ran out again, we can’t say. We went on. Where Weber’s cheese shop was, we had to stop because there was an air twirl. We had to get our breath back. From the army ordnance depot [at 93] people were shouting to come over to them. That’s where we went. But it became unbearable there too because of the heat and the smoke and then we went to the other side, in the garden of the former Jewish temple. There we spent the night, in the fire trenches.
In no. 81 too were many women with small children. They were sitting on mattresses.
Mother and brother had searched for jewellery and rings among the personal effects salvaged by the police. They found two rings of the missing person – the wedding band and an aquamarine – which had been salvaged from 1 Moltkestraße. Well, the mother said, she must have run after us from the house and I heard her on the street shouting for help for a long while. The woman was probably frightened by the flying sparks and ran into another house. There she perished. Also her golden watch with 5 diamonds, a family heirloom, has been found, partly charred. Two diamonds could still be recognised, the gold casing is in parts completely oxidised and so charred that the clockwork is visible.