Lotte G

Lotte G

Lotte G's account of the events at Friedrichstraße 20, Weinberg bunker.

1944-03-17

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Record 44

BKasselVdObmv10044

Translated from the original in German: Present is Miss Lotte G., now of Kaiserstraße 116, formerly of Friedrichstraße 20, born 11 December 1906, and makes the following statement:
Every time we had alarm, I went to the bunker in Weinberg. When the alarm came, I went there this time too directly from home. On the way there, everything was still quiet. The shooting started only a few minutes later. In the bunker people were lying on the ground during the detonations and they also screamed as they were very loud to hear in the forward parts of the corridors. And then a soldier ran through and shouted: “The whole hospital is burning down.” And we were told that women and girls without children had to get out and help. But I assume that more bombs were being dropped because we were held back. Then they brought the ill from the Elisabeth hospital down on stretchers, from the roadside. So we had to evacuate our corridors. Women with infants came too. Shortly after we were told everything’s on fire, anyone who would still try to salvage something should see to it that they get to their dwellings. We were crowded out because more and more people came and then I crossed the street and followed the wall and burning bits were dropping from the houses on the Weinberg. So I got to Fünffesterstraße.
Everything was on fire, one could hardly see anything because of the smoke. Then I went up Königstraße as far as Adolf-Hitler-Platz. The regional government offices were on fire. (I did not see a bus which was boarded by children at the Elisabeth hospital.) I saw a single car being driven, along Friedrichstraße, Wilhelmshöher Allee to Königstor. On Adolf-Hitler-Platz was an ambulance which was fetching a young man who had smoke poisoning. He was lying on the ground, then they put him in the ambulance and drove through Friedrichstraße where Kasseler Post is. Everything around me was ablaze, it was terrible, but the regional government offices were the worst off. The fire engulfing the theatre on Wilhelmshöher Platz was being fought. One side of the building was ablaze. That was after the raid. Then I was in my flat. All the neighbouring houses were on fire and ours was in danger. It still stands today. My room looked terrible, the crockery was broken, the doors had been blown off the walls and cupboards, the clothes were lying in the dirt. It was a complete mess. Soldiers helped carry furniture from the houses opposite into ours. From there they took it to the Adolf-Hitler-Platz. At first, I took the most important items to the Adolf-Hitler-Platz too because the soldiers thought the house would burn down to, we know that. But then I could bring my stuff back. My eyes were so full of smoke that I could barely see any more. So I went to the Diakonissen hospital where they put drops in my eyes. In the pharmacy, they gave me boric acid solution for the night.
If a bus had picked up the children from the Elisabeth hospital, I would have seen it, because I was on Adolf-Hitler-Platz all the time. I think I would have noticed.