Browse Items (10652 total)

  • Coverage is exactly "civilian"

ANocchieriF170202.mp3
Franco Nocchieri recalls his early years as an orphan in several different towns in the Province of Pavia. He describes the bombing of the Voghera railway station, which started while he was heading to school. He goes on to explain how he and his…

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Charly Pfeifer recounts his experiences of the bombing of Betzdorf an der Sieg, a small town not far from the Ruhr. He explains the strategic importance of the city, due to the presence of locomotive works. He recounts taking shelter from the bombs…

ACarterRH150629.mp3
Rob Carter was born in the village of Scampton and reminisces about his life on the land before the war. He recounts the foundation of RAF Dunholme Lodge, which his house overlooked. During the war, he served in the Auxiliary Fire Service. He was…

ABoschD150730.mp3
Dirk Bosch was eight years old when the German army occupied his home town of Amsterdam. In this interview he describes what life was like for him during this time. He refers to seeing Dutch Jews rounded up and deported. He describes the hunger of…

MemoroDE#14947.mp3
Gerda Gentner (b. 1934) recalls the first bombing of Dresden on 7 October 1944. Gerda describes how she unsuccessfully tried to persuade a young boy to take shelter with her in the basement and reminisces her feeling when she knew that he had died…

Memoro#10169.mp3
Agnes Stocker (b. 1932) recounts her evacuation from her hometown and the journey to Ueckermünde. Agnes tells how she get separated from her sister, her brother and her cousin (who followed the road to Swinemünde), while she, her mother and her…

Memoro#1031.mp3
Brigitte Terboven (b. 1930) recalls the bombing of Essen and the dropping of an air mine by a British bomber which was trying to evade a German night fighter. The bomb hit the ground about 20 meters from her home which collapsed like a house of…

Memoro#15496.mp3
Jörg Funfoff (b. 1942) recounts the experience of being a young boy at Heiligensee, a Berlin suburb; on the flying path of approaching bombers. Narrates how he was the first to hear the bombers approaching before they are in sight (a fact he was…

Memoro#15628.mp3
Jaun Schauerte (b. 1936) recalls rushing to the shelter with a suitcase and a bag pack. Remembers one night when his grandmother fell under the heavy weight of the rucksack and nobody stopped to help her. Recalls the Bremen bombing, while he was…

Memoro#4898.mp3
Margarete Meyer (b. 1936) describes the 13 February 1945 Dresden bombing and recounts how her mother reacted to the alarm. She rushed to the shelter and took some belongings, including what she thought was her confirmation dress. Explains how her…

Memoro#425.mp3
Inge Heinrich (b. 1922) describes the bombing of the Berlin borough of Kreuzberg and recounts how she had dreamt of being buried alive under the rubble but surviving in the end. Tells of how the patent agency building, in which she was working, was…

Memoro#1546.mp3
Christoph Wagner Brausewetter (b. 1929) recounts the hardships civilians endured inside a shelter, the risks involved and the fact they spent there more time there than at home. Maintains that the worst year was 1943, when aircraft were no longer…

Memoro#462.mp3
Burckhard Kuck (b. 1925) tells the story of a 63-year-old mirror, a present from his fellow inmates when he was detained in a prisoner of war camp in England. Emphasises how the object reminds him of the lack of mirrors in the camp and of the fact…

Memoro#4243.mp3
Maria Domanovszky (b. 1937) recounts how she threw herself into a swampy ditch when under fire and how she lay down praying and hoping to get back home safely. Describes German soldiers with torn and dirty uniforms escaping from a burning forest.…

Memoro#4729.mp3
Helga Cent-Velden (b. 1926) recounts her life in Berlin under constant threat of bombing. Describes how her father tried to locate a suitable air raid shelter for the family and especially how he ruled out the Shell House because of a canal running…

Memoro#14606.mp3
Eva Brossmer (b. 1925) remembers the incessant bombing of Berlin by the Allied and explains how she and her mother fled to Südharz trying to avoid the advancing Russians. Explains how German broadcasts did not mention their advance and how she heard…

Memoro#15926.mp3
Renate Rothaler (b. 1937) recounts her wartime experiences in Gotha, where she lived with her mother and sister while her father was drafted. Mentions a bombing in spring 1944 when she watched ‘silver birds’ that soon started to drop bombs, a…

AFerrariM170116.mp3
Marino Ferrari recalls his early life as an engineer at Pavia arsenal, and later in Catanzaro and Verona. Describes his life as an Italian military internee in East Prussia, working in different lumberyards. Speaks with affection of the German…

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Alessandra Rivalta recalls her early life, first as member of Opera Nazionale Balilla then as an undergraduate student at the faculty of humanities. Describes the start of the war, early anti-aircraft precautions and wartime life: food shortage,…

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Paola Giorgina Pasini provides details of her early life in a family of agricultural workers and compares favourably their condition with those living in urban areas. Recalls the ominous sight of target indicators and flares, and remembers Pippo…

ABottaniP1601.jpg
Paolo Bottani recalls wartime memories of a working-class family in Milan. Describes the widespread enthusiasm for the declaration of war, followed by a relatively calm period. Mentions alarms as greeted initially with joy because classes stopped and…

AMuratoriL161130.mp3
Lucia Muratori recalls her early life in Bologna in the family of a well-off foundry owner. Stresses that she had less traumatic war experiences compared to many other people at that time, the only disturbing episode being eye-witnessing the killing…

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Fausta Maggioni recalls memories of her wartime life in Milan. She describes a sizeable shelter reinforced with wooden props, a little bag with the few valuables she had always to bring along, as well as the many duties of her father as warden, who…

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Teresa Messali gives a brief account of her pre-war life with her large family in a farmhouse near Bergamo. She mentions Pippo; describes the pressing need to find shelter during the bombings and stresses how she frequently resorted to ditches.…

Memoro#555.mp3
Erika Gautsch (b. 1928) describes her wartime experience of being inside a shelter and the people she met there: an old sick man with his wife, who was incessantly reciting the rosary, and children clinging to their mothers. Emphasises tension and…
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