Marhta and Fritz L

Marhta and Fritz L

Marhta and Fritz L's account of the events at Philippistraße 7 and Gießbergstraße 31.

1944-04-15

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Record 67

BKasselVdObmv10067

Translated from the original in German: Present are Mr Fritz L., born 23 March 1909, and his wife Martha, née W., born 4 August 1909, formerly of Gießberg-straße 31, now of Wernswig, district Fritzlar and make the following statement:
On Saturday morning my husband was supposed to start his journey to the front and he wanted to say good-bye to his brother in Rothenditmold. On the way back, the alarm came. We were sitting in the tram and wanted to get home. We got out of the tram and went down into the cellar of Philippistraße 7. It was relatively calm in the cellar. After the raid, we made our way over the Tannenwäldchen. Then the ammunitions train went up. As we went down Kölnische Straße, lots of people came the other way. Some houses were on fire along the street. Then we went via Königstor, Friedrichstraße, Schöne Aussicht to Holländische Platz. In Untere Königstraße everything was on fire. We wanted to go home but could not get up Wolfshager Straße. So we went to the bunker at the Henschel plant. Here we bandaged people until the following morning because my husband is a paramedic (he is a trained chef).
At about six, we could get to our house, the fire had burnt down sufficiently. And then we saw the mess that there was not much left of our house. A man told us that the boy had been standing in front of the house at six. So we did not search for our only son. Except for the landlord, all the people in the house were dead. We went to the town hall and from there to Jäger barracks. From there, my husband accompanied people with severe burns to the military hospital in Melsungen. They were all adults. Then my wife travelled on and arrived at two in the morning in Wernswig at her parents’.
Later, my husband and the newly formed company dug out the boy. We dug out the whole of the cellar which had caved in. The house had fallen directly into the cellar and had to be dug up. We dug from the washhouse because the laundry served as air raid shelter. First I found the remains of Mrs Baunemann and Volker (four years old); towards evening, just as we wanted to call it a day, we found our boy. I only recognised him by his wrist watch and his Hitler Youth belt buckle. He was buried as identified. The following day I travelled to Wernswig. I got a coffin there and he was put in the coffin in Kassel and I took him with me to Wernswig. The company gave me a vehicle for that.
The other tenants were dug out by Italians and were put into a communal grave in Rothenditmold.
My company was in action for another two weeks and a military hospital was built in Guntershausen which received and treated injured people from Kassel. – We only had adult patients and two or three boys from the Hitler Youth.