Paul Harthke
Title
Paul Harthke
Description
Paul Harthke's account of the events at Töpfenmarkt 19, Public House ‘Zur Pinne’.
Date
1944-03
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 55
BKasselVdObmv10055
Transcription
Translated from the original in German: Present is Mr Paul Harthke, born 22 July 1877, and makes the following statement:
After I had been bombed out in Weserstraße 8, I moved to my daughter’s at Töpfenmarkt. When the alarm came, we ran immediately to the Pinne, because we’d already been hit once and that makes you afraid. Then the emergency exit took a direct hit and was buried. And then smoke came in. There was a lot of noise, the children, the women, the men started to scream, the direct hit on the house knocked it down. Now the entrance was buried too. Afterwards I was lying on dead bodies.
Someone knocked holes into the walls because we thought we’d get out. Then I went to sleep. I don’t know what happened after that. I was brought to the Red Cross. That’s where I woke up.
I didn’t see a three-year old boy. I don’t remember anything. My wife, my daughter and two grandchildren died from smoke poisoning in the Pinne.
After I had been bombed out in Weserstraße 8, I moved to my daughter’s at Töpfenmarkt. When the alarm came, we ran immediately to the Pinne, because we’d already been hit once and that makes you afraid. Then the emergency exit took a direct hit and was buried. And then smoke came in. There was a lot of noise, the children, the women, the men started to scream, the direct hit on the house knocked it down. Now the entrance was buried too. Afterwards I was lying on dead bodies.
Someone knocked holes into the walls because we thought we’d get out. Then I went to sleep. I don’t know what happened after that. I was brought to the Red Cross. That’s where I woke up.
I didn’t see a three-year old boy. I don’t remember anything. My wife, my daughter and two grandchildren died from smoke poisoning in the Pinne.
Citation
Vermisstensuchstelle des Oberbürgermeisters der Stadt Kassel, “Paul Harthke,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/8721.
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