Gretel K
Title
Gretel K
Description
Gretel K's account of the events at Wörthstraße 12.
Date
1944-03-21
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 46
BKasselVdObmv10046
Transcription
Translated from the original in German: Present is Miss Gretel K., shorthand typist, former address Wörthstraße 12, current address: Quellhofstraße 17, c/o Barth
She is the only survivor of the residents of Wörthstraße 12.
When all the residents of the house went to the cellar after the alarm, Miss K. remained in the corridor in the cellars because she felt safer there. A young woman stayed in her rooms with a visitor and was killed there.
Right at the beginning of the raid the house took a direct hit and buried the air raid cellar and two other rooms in the cellar. Miss K. too had been partly buried in the corridor but could free herself by her own efforts. She ran up the stairs of the cellar; on the ground floor the lights were still on although the house had been hit. She did not hear a sound from the people in the cellar. She stayed for about an hour lying outside the front door and then ran into the building next door. After a quarter of an hour, she ran to the school in Sedanstraße. Many people were there. Soon, however, that corner of the street had to be evacuated because the heat became too intense, and all of them went up Sedanstraße, along Orleansstraße to Lutherplatz. Miss K. stayed there for five or six hours and then made her way to a colleague from work who lived on Kölnische Straße. In terms of injuries, Miss K. had swollen legs, sore feet and a head injury. She had not salvaged anything. The things she was wearing were damaged completely.
The people in the air raid cellar had been blown to smithereens; only some parts from soldiers’ boots and some bones were found later.
Of the relatives of Miss K. the following were in the cellar with her: the mother, two aunts, the misses Emmi and Adele Siegburg, of Schlachthofstraße 10, and a sister, Edith K.
She is the only survivor of the residents of Wörthstraße 12.
When all the residents of the house went to the cellar after the alarm, Miss K. remained in the corridor in the cellars because she felt safer there. A young woman stayed in her rooms with a visitor and was killed there.
Right at the beginning of the raid the house took a direct hit and buried the air raid cellar and two other rooms in the cellar. Miss K. too had been partly buried in the corridor but could free herself by her own efforts. She ran up the stairs of the cellar; on the ground floor the lights were still on although the house had been hit. She did not hear a sound from the people in the cellar. She stayed for about an hour lying outside the front door and then ran into the building next door. After a quarter of an hour, she ran to the school in Sedanstraße. Many people were there. Soon, however, that corner of the street had to be evacuated because the heat became too intense, and all of them went up Sedanstraße, along Orleansstraße to Lutherplatz. Miss K. stayed there for five or six hours and then made her way to a colleague from work who lived on Kölnische Straße. In terms of injuries, Miss K. had swollen legs, sore feet and a head injury. She had not salvaged anything. The things she was wearing were damaged completely.
The people in the air raid cellar had been blown to smithereens; only some parts from soldiers’ boots and some bones were found later.
Of the relatives of Miss K. the following were in the cellar with her: the mother, two aunts, the misses Emmi and Adele Siegburg, of Schlachthofstraße 10, and a sister, Edith K.
Citation
Vermisstensuchstelle des Oberbürgermeisters der Stadt Kassel, “Gretel K,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/8704.
Item Relations
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