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The odyssey that lay before people like the young Wolf Bierma
The following account is by a man who was in his mid-forties. When the exit from his cellar was blocked by rubble he was forced to break through into his brother-in-law’s pastry shop on the ground floor of the building. From that point on it became almost impossible to keep the family together as they ran through the burning streets in a desperate search for shelter:
There were only two places that might be safe; either the sports field on Grevenweg or the Ankelma
Even on the short distance to the next corner, we saw the first people burning, desperately ru
All around people fled from burning buildings. Some came out with their clothes already alight, others caught fire outside, from the sparks, the blazing heat or the phosphor. Again and again we saw burning people suddenly start to run, and soon after, to fall.
After this terrible cries were to be heard, but they too grew rarer. I saw many burning people who ran and collapsed in silence. There were also people travelling in the opposite direction to us. Because of this we had only gone a few steps when I heard my sister call. We could not see her, because despite the bright fires close by, thick smoke and dust darkened everything. We followed my sister’s voice, calling [to her] ourselves, but received no answer. For a short while it became lighter. Around twenty metres in front of me, I saw my brother-in-law appear from the darkness of a building’s wall, and run into the middle of the street. I called to him. He turned to me. I saw from his badly swollen face that he had already suffered heavy burns. Whether or not he recognized me, I do not know. My brother-in-law suddenly turned away again and began to run. I then saw that all his clothes were burning brightly. He fell into a mass of three or four corpses which were already completely burned. When my wife and I reached there, our brother-in-law was already dead, burned. There was no way to save the people who were falling. He who fell over during his escape was lost…
My wife’s head began to burn. Her hair had caught fire. With a small amount of water that I had in a bucket with me I was able to put out her burning hair. At the same time I cooled my hands and face… My wife complained, ‘I can’t go on! My feet are burned! My hands!’… I also felt great pain in my right hand, caused by a severe burn. My left hand was begi
The stretch of road upon which we now travelled brought ever worsening scenes of horror. I saw many women with their children held in their arms ru
A tornado, a whirl of sparks, the tops of trees bent to the street by the force of the burning wind – what these people were witnessing was the begi
The city authorities struggled vainly to keep the fires under control, but from the outset they were fighting a losing battle. With most of the fire service still in the west of the city there were few teams to combat the flames. Those who did appear soon gave up trying to put out the fires and concentrated instead on rescuing people from burning buildings. In Rothenburgsort, for example, the fire-service leader ordered his men to create an umbrella of water for the fugitives to escape beneath, and in this way brought up to five thousand people to safety. 29Such rescue attempts were still possible on the outer edges of the main firestorm area – but once the fire brigade ventured into Hammerbrook, Borgfelde and Hamm they were forced to abandon all hope of saving anyone. The head of one fire-fighting unit discovered that, not only was he unable to help the fugitives, he was lucky to escape with his own life:
In Hammer Weg there were people lying on the street. We climbed out of the car to rescue them. Then suddenly, along the Landstraße, there came a colossal sheet of flame, which I tried to escape by ru
Ludwig Faupel was another fireman who had rushed to Hamm only to find himself embroiled in the full force of the firestorm. After driving through a ‘roaring, boiling hell’, he and his crew were forced to abandon their vehicle in the middle of the road and take whatever shelter they could find. 31
Closely pressed against the ground behind a heap of stones, the heat was unbearable. Again and again I had to put out my smouldering clothes. I put my gas mask on for lack of air. Bits of fire, dust and ash flew all around. In the howling and crashing of the wind people were blown over, stumbled and lay there exhausted, doomed to die. Above it all the growling drone of hundreds of aircraft. Bombs exploding.