The timid excitation which had taken hold of all of us found its expression in the faces of the persons sitting there speechless, in a stout position. Among us was an elderly couple with the family name Schütze, which had been bombed out a while ago and since had been taken in by the Seebecks in the first floor. The little property they had been able to acquire they carried, packed in cardbord boxes, into the basement whenever there was alarm, fearful not to lose it again. The woman, whose nerves had suffered much from the shock experienced so far (p.9) could no more stand the moment's tension. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed tormentedly, only heightening the tension. We tried to calm her down, in order to appease the children which were close to sobbing themselves.

In the meantime, the hollow sound of the anti aircraft artillery had turned into a raging one, an indication that the squadron was attacking at low altitude. Indeed, one could hear from the basement entry airplanes fly close by over us, with an eerily howling noise. Not only that, almost simultaneously one sensed a close sequence of peculiarily clicking sounds, obviously caused by stick-type incendiary bombs, which broke through the roofs of our own and the neighbouring houses, but especially through the cardboard roofs of the adjacent paint factory owned by brother-in-law Seebeck, sepatrated from our house only by a small garden, as was the storage barn alongside the Schönianstraße, of Pundt & Kohnert ltd., filled with logs.

Before we realized what had happened, the ground trembled again and the electric lights went out. Has the house been hit over our heads? All energies of hell seemed to descend on us, with horrible howling, cracking and trembling the hour of the apocalypse seemed to come. Here, underground, surrounded by darkness we stood, helpless, bewildered, inable to comprehend what happened around us. 

I had a small rechargable flashlight with me. Utilizing it, I hurried to fetch the lantern for emergencies, hanging in the antechamber, and I lit it, not without noticing that my hands attempting to light the wick with a match were trembling considerably. The lamp soon spread steady light, and this, togerher with the soothing words of the men, contributed to preventing the spread of panic.

Now a strange light began to shine into the dark basement hallway, coming from the backward basement staircase. A glimpse up the stairs made me realize that Seebeck's paint factory, separated from the basement entrance by a tiny garden, was burning so brightly that the flash bombs in the (p.10) sky paled in comparison. Flames even licked up a clothes-line-post standing in the garden. Bewildered I hurried through the basement hallway toward the furnace room, adjacent to the air-raid shelter, to catch a glimpse at the wide Borriesstraße, in front of our house. This furnace room once had had feeding holes which later had been closed with transparent bricks to prevent flooding in case of occasional inundations. Through these dim bricks I saw a strangely flowing, intensive glitter which gave me the impression of a stream of fluid phosphor, reminding of the disaster of Hamburg. In reality it was bright, bluish magnesium light caused by a number of stick-type incendiary bombs, which just at that moment were emitting sparks on the pavement.

Distressed I returned to the air raid shelter room. In the meantime, here a knocking and shouting was heard, coming from the adjacent basement of the Kreymborg's. Mr. Bombach, the neighbour living on our floor, had already begun to break in the thin wall which separated our basements, with a pickaxe. Not to remain idle, I took over the axe and finished the work; yet I had to crawl through a small side basement room and to break in yet another thin wall, before I could see, in the dim light of a flickering candle, the terrified faces of the elderly Kreymborg lady and of several other tenants of her house.
In desperation, while crawling through the opening, they shouted that the house over their heads was up in flames, especially the back premises, the former tobacco factory, which with its strong wooden beams, filled with empty wooden and cardboard boxes must have provided for an infernal fire.

Certainly the truss of our own house, rising far atop the Kreymborg's edifice, was on fire as well, as all the roofs had been penetrated by directly falling incendiary bombs, but we did not yet sense an immediate threat from the developing conflagration over our heads, because of the height of most of the buildings. The fact that the lower buildings of the factories aforementioned, with their highly inflammable, partially explosive content such as benzene, petrol, tarpentine and wax, surrounded our house at ground level, in addition the depository for logs, located on the opposing side of the Schönianstraße (p.11), with its tarred cardboard roofs and its rich supplies of wood which had only recently been delivered by a Swedish freighter, and which were brightly on fire, incended by canisters of fuel which had served as flame throwers, all of these circumstances left us in utter confusion.

The edifices aforementioned had been regarded by us, in the event of a larger fire, as a rather hazardous neighbourhood. Now the gruesome reality topped even the worst of our fears, for one because we had not included the unnerving effect of the incendiary bombs falling down upon us, as well as the entire scope of this disaster night, into our calculation.

People ran around like scared chicken, out of the shelter, out of the house. Any organisatoric cohesion of the house community had ceased to exist. With my family I first entered the unlocked apartment of my brother-in-law on the first floor, Christian Seebeck, who for some time had taken residence outside of town in Hahnenknoop and who stayed here only over day. Despite the fact that the apartment was as lit as during daytime I carried the lantern with me until I had the idea to put it down. In the apartment on first floor we noticed that the glass windows to Borriesstraße had been smashed by the shockwaves emitted by detonating bombs which had fallen nearby. We were stunned by the forces raging around us. For a moment we stood in front of the large closet in the storage room, which our sister-in-law had placed at our disposal and which contained much of our clothes and of other items. We always had believed to be able to evacuate these in case of an emergency. Now we did not even think of it. If bare life is in jeopardy there is no room for such a thought.

We went back into the stretched hallway, disregarding the fact that the large glass skylight at the end did not provide any protection, the panes being broken just in this moment, obviously by something which fell off the roof. What happened in the house above us was beyond our knowledge. I tried to hurry up the stairs to find out about the present situation, and Gerda followed me to the first landing (p.12), but our two children yelled terrified, we should not leave them alone, so we returned without even taking a look into our own apartment, let alone move valuables to safety. And certainly at this point of time many important, irreplacable items could have been saved, if we would not have been driven by the love for our children and of our own lives, and if we would have known where to deposit the recovered things, as, with the exception of the basement rooms the entire neighbourhood was in flames and would form a single blaze in no time.

Because of this conception it did not seem advisable to remain in the basement or attempt to reclaim household goods as long as there was still time. In the hallway, under the skylight we passed a few dots of a burning substance lying on the floor tiles, which we instinctively avoided to touch with our feet, as it could have been phosphor. Yet more probably they were squirts of liquid fire canisters which also had been dropped frequently, and which had penetrated the skylight.

When we left the house, first of all Suse, who was most upset, immediately in front of the door and on the road half a dozen stick-type incendiary bombs still sprayed or ceased to glow. It must have been around 22.20, at what time the majority of the planes had already flown off, while further squadrons approached from all directions, as this evening's air situation reports later revealed. In the line of the high buildings of the Borriesstraße the trusses were on fire, partially already the floors located thereunder; flames flickered out of their windows. The air was filled of a reflection of firy flame and acrid smoke. The roaring of the fire consuming everything around it in the nightly wind sounded gruesome, intermixed with the crackling and bursting of burning and falling beams. No defense, hardly a living being was to be seen on the street, a fact which increased the eerieness of the impression and lifted it into the phantastic and unreal. Would we be the last to leave this city of destruction, had the fellow humans, just as us surprised by this gruesome catastrophe, all fled already, or were most of them still remaining in the bunkers and basements ?

In the southern direction of the Borriesstraße toward the canal bridge sight was blocked by massive smoke, which, grey and blackish, interspersed with flames, filled the street in dense clouds.

(p. 13) We tried to reach more open room in the opposite direction toward the old bridge over the Geeste, where we hoped to find more protection and further escape because of the proximity of water. The sreet was covered with fragments of glass and debris, and Suse who had clothed herself only scantily with cardigan, lont pants and a light coat and who wore light slippers, lost the latter when fleeing from our home and had left them behind. She ran on stockings across glass fragments, while Gerda and I followed, holding Margret by her hand. 

We hardly had covered a stone's throw's distance when airplane engines could be heard and another set of detonations followed, caused by bombs or anti aircraft artillery I can not say. We just had reached the old brick building housing the district court, at the corner of our block, the basement of which contained a public air raid shelter. On the stairs leading to its entrance two helmeted civil defense corps men were standing; they signaled intensely with their arms and called "come here !" We followed without hesitation, despite the fact that the attic storey of that building already was in flames, and ended up in the basement, there, after passing a steel door, in a small room forming the antechamber to several vault-type side rooms, also closed by steel doors. In there it was dark and I had the impression that a large number of men was sitting there, motionless, occupied with their thoughts and fears. With a few other individuals we remained in the antechamber, which was poorly lit by an emergency light. A box with sand stood on the floor, and Suse, with her merely bestockinged feet stepped into it.

There we four stood, close to each other such as naked nestlings suddenly thrown out of their cozy, warm nest by brutal destiny. Our fate had come down upon us so suddenly and so forcedul that we were perplexed and stunned, almost unmoved by the loss of our house and property, fully uncertain as how this horrible trial would end for us.

Outside another attack wave seemed to unfold, as we could hear dull detonations through the strong walls of our dungeon. Indeed, according to air situation reports read later, at 22.35 enemy planes were still over Wesermünde, only at 22.42 the area was evacuated by them. On the other hand, at this time many oxygen and hydrogen containers on the Seebeck docks located nearby exploded under the influence of the heat, and it may well be that they caused the detonations we heard.

Every now and then the steel door of our antechamber went open and individual neighbourhood residents were let in, who had made there way here. Among them were two women, who completely had lost their composure. Every time the door opened, smoke polluted the air which already was low in oxygen. Our eyes hurt and watered, because of the acrid smoke, the throat was dry, because of the rising temperature our entire bodies sweated.

I do not remember how long we stood like this. We had lost any sense of time. At least so much time had past that we were gradually occupied by the thought to get from here to a safer place. A women frequently coming in and going out of the basement, obviously the caretaker's wife, gave Suse a pair of shoes, much too small for her, but in these she at least could dare to leave the house.

In order to find out about the possibility of moving out, I repeatedly left the basement, went up the stairs to the main door, the panes of which were smashed, stepped a few steps on the street which through which a blaze was blowing and which was lit by flickering fires. The conflagration had intensified everywhere. With painful feeling I realized that out house, too, was consumed by the fire, flames flickered out of the balcony on the 3rd floor. If it still was possible to enter the apartment under it ? Perhaps the ceiling was already burning, certainly the staircase too much filled with smoke to permit an entry. But I did not feel much like trying. Everything here might turn into ash, if only we ourselves remained together and unharmed.

But how to get away ? Meanwhile a powerful conflagration had developed, which was fed by enormous sources of fire in the by-streets, especially the log storage barn at Schönianstraße, from where a rain of sparks and burning heat blew across the Borriesstraße. It seemed audacious to cross it with wife and children. And yet there was no other way; we could not stay here, as the building over us was in flames down to the second floor.

Depressed I returned to my family. The imagination (p.15) of the girdle of fire, smoke and blaze might be impenetrable, was horrible. But not all hope could be lost yet, not until we had undertaken a detemined attempt. The question was if we first should stay on for some time in the basement, or if we, despite the desponded opinion of others, should immediately give it a try. I went up to the street another time and decided that we could no longer hesitate to leave this mouse trap, if we wanted to get out before the entry was blocked by the collapsing ceiling. There was an emergency exit in the back, which might have been used by the house's other temporary residents, but I regarded it as less secure, as it lead across the court of the prison, also on fire, onto Kanalstraße, which was exposed to the blaze coming from the log storing barn and the Hansa shipyard behind it. So we had to leave through the front, across Borriesstraße into the open.

Back in the basement I described the situation to my dependents and I asked them to take heart and to follow me. In the corner there was a half-full water barrel. I dipped their coats in it, put them over their heads and asked them to cover their mouths with wet handkerchiefs. So we went onto the street. Myself I was without a coat, which I had left behind in the garden when I had to leave it suddenly. With collar turned up and ducked head I tried to face the blaze.

On the street we faced strong heat which I sensed in my face, but it proved to be bearable. We even passed the storm of sparks coming out of the Kanalstraße, without catching fire, despite the fact that in combination with the blast flames coming out of the [?]ollmeyer's stationery shop it seemed all the more threatening. Sticking to the center of the street we strove toward the ramp leading up to the old Geeste bridge, hindered by electric cables and tram cables which we at first instinctively avoided, fearing they might still be electrically charged, which turned out not to be the case.

Driven by the fear for her young life, Suse soon has ahead of us, joining a man which had left the basement together with us (p.16) and who steadily headed forward. I followed, holding Margret by her hand, under the coat pulled over her head she hardly noticed what happened around her and she followed willingly. A few steps behind us Gerda followed, ponderously stepping over the obstacles spread all over, under her soaked coat. After a while I regarded it necessary to take her by the hand, too. So, without further incident and damage, we reached the area in front of the Geeste bridge, which, while all adjacent buildings were on fire, did not cause us to fear being slain by bricks and debris falling down on our heads.

The road to Bremerhaven was blocked; even the wooden bridge surfacing was on fire, not mentioning that the city center itself seemed to consumed by conflagration. In any case the house rows adjacent to the Torfplatz and the Fahrstraße were in flames, including the Villa of the director of the Seebeck shipyard, which was located immediately opposite the bridge, on fire were also the extended docks of the Seebeck shipyard. And on this side of the Geeste, the longitudinal barn-type edifices downstream formed a singular sea of fire, even the trawlers and other vehicles, tied to the bank, were burning, including the ferry boat and ferry house, for the transfer to Blexen on the Oldenburgian side of the Weser river.

Despite the fact that many people, among them some from our house had fled here to seek protection near the water, under the Busse monument at the Geeste, we instinctively preferred to turn down the Ludwigsstraße in the direction of the Bürgerpark, across which we hoped to reach our garden located outside of the city on the Schiffdorfer Chaussee, which emotionally remained our only homestead left, while it did not provide sufficient living space. But we could hope that our garden neighbours, the Bürgerhoff family, would provisorically take us in.

Yet the Ludwigstraße with its high buildings was included in the inferno in its entire, the burning blaze flickered at us from both sides. This did not frighten us much any more, while we noticed that here at least we did not have to fear lack of oxygen. Still we hastened to cover the distance, because we could feel secure only after having left the center of the blaze. A new obstacle appeared when we almost had reached the end of the street. Here heavy bombs hat hit, having destroyed the last house on the left; debris was scattered all over the street. We had to climb over it, even over a toppled tree, before we reached the Hohenzollernring, where the Gestapo and Reichsbank building on the left, the buildings o the Chamber of Commerce and of the Oberrealschule on the right were almost untouched.

When we had passed these buildings, on this wide alley, we sensed the fresh, cool night air coming in from the green areas in the east, a valuable refreshing of our dried-up lungs. We had escaped the sea of fire, we were saved ! Here the enormous fire in our back could not harm us any more, and our worry that we could be targetted by further bombs or could fall victim to time bombs lying around which might detonate in the moment we passed did not frighten us. That we, from now on, had joined those who were bombed out, that we had to accept the loss of our home and property, did cause us little worry in this moment; we were much more taken by the immense feeling of being so fortunate to escape the deadly threat, that we were healthy and together. Surmounted by the emotion we embraced each other. Speechless we sensed in this moment what we meant for each other and how deep the affection was that united us.

The thought preoccupying my daughter Suse seemed, in this significant moment, to be directed at another male person. Seemingly not aware of her immediate surrounding, she spoke in an undertone, and only my ears noticed how her lips formed the words : "It is only now I sense how much I love him." The identity of the object of this statement was revealed the folowing day when it became apparent that the friendly relation Suse had had for a short time with a man she had met on her job with the navy, and which had caused her to introduce him in our house under the excuse of having our electric record player repaired, had been much deeper and touched the hearts of both.

This being mentioned only by the way, in parenthesis. Essential was that, while fate has treated us harshly, we had been spared much worse. Looking at each other we hardly could believe that none of us had been harmed (p.18); not even our clothing showed any damage worthwile to mention by the constant rain of sparks. Only our eyes hurt, under the eyelids, as if sand had gotten under them.

Our next goal was to reach the Bürgerpark, located on the eastern fringe of the city. It seemed not to be recommendable to approach it via the Hohenzollernring, turning right toward the railway station and then through a railway underpass, as also there fire was raging and especially the railway station hotel was all up in flames. Therefore we preferred to turn left through the gardens which later had to give ground to the new edifice of the Employment Office, and to try to reach the park crossing the high rail dam. Entering the gardens we met a young woman we knew superficially. Se was sitting there all by herself, with a clothes-basket filled with glasses containing pickles etc., guarding another part of the property she had managed to save. She told us that many refugees had passed here and showed us the route we had to take. She also was so kind to provide Suse with another pair of shoes, which were too large, but much of a relief. She gave us even a glass with pickled meat. Now we went through the garden colony, over fences and wires; we reached the railway dam after crossing a water-filled ditch, which we climbed at a spot overtopped by a building containing signaling equipment; the building was reflecting the fires raging nearby. Out of one of the high windows a warden was leaning, looking like tower warden Lynkeus, who was watching the immense conflagration from a position of secure height. We, too, remained for a while, looking back at the magnificent, horrible yet beautiful city burning at night and the gigantic ballooning smoke clouds over it. We did not turn into pillars of salt, as happened to Lot's wife, but our emotions had been overtaken by a certain numbness, as our eyes and bewildered senses were unable to register all what had happened this evening in merely two hours. Even language failed to express the size and fertility of the event. Myself I hardly got beyond the repeated question how this had been possible. I could not even feel angry at Tommy who had destroyed (p.19) the city and who had harmed us so much. My emotion was directed exclusively at those who had started this war against humanity and the seed of which now had ripened to a harvest so horrible, far worse than I sensed and anticipated at the outbreak of the war.

Yet from here the actual scope of our city's disaster could not be fully grasped. I shouted at Lynkeus to tell me if the Seebeckwerft, my place of employment, also was on fire. He answered that he could not see, because clouds of smoke moving westward blocked the view. So it was indeed. We stood with the east in our back, and enormous clouds of smoke moved westward, across the Weser. From the opposing Oldenburgian bank, spectators may have seen the mighty glow of fire above the city, but not the sea of fire itself, which was blocked by the approaching clouds of smoke. But not only smoke took the path across the Weser. The gigantic suction dragged ash and matter of all kinds with it, into great height, and transported them far into Oldenburg state.

The tenants of a plot of land belomnging to us at Blexerwisch, about 5 km inland, told us shortly afterward that their land and cattle had not only been covered with ash, but papers and pieces of documents had fallen down uncharred. By a stroke of fortune, among these had been correspondence of the Geestemünder paint factory August Seebeck. The presence of these documents had led them to the conclusion that our house, too, had completely burnt down, because they new that the factory office had been on our house's ground floor.

After we stayed a while on the railway dam, as described, and after the warden had pointed with his arm at the place where we could best cross the many wires, we descended, more sliding than climbing, the dam's opposite slope. So we reached the Frühlingsstraße in the Bürgerpark quarter, which all in all seemed to be spared because it was located on the outskirts of the city. The first burning house we found belonged to the Nahrendorf family. The couple stood in front of the sorry remnants of their previously so beautiful property, and Mrs. Nahrendorf expressed my thoughts when she said, full of bitterness and sarcasm : "This we owe to our Führer!"

We stopped for a short rest at Cafe Roux, at the main entrance of the Bürgerpark, which we now approached. Its wide rooms resembled an (p.20) asylum of bunet-outs, who had made their way out of the chaos to this meeting place. It may have been midnight, the attack may have ended an hour ago. There had been no "all clear" sound, because all the sirens worked no more. People were sitting aroound apathically, mostly in front of empty cups and cleared tables, because all refreshments and stores of edibles seemed to have been consumed in the early rush. Still after some effort we suceeded in wettening our throats with thin coffee, before we continued our journey.

In the Hermann Göring-Straße (presently Walter Delius-Straße) we called on Cornelius Loop, our acquantance, whose villa was unharmed. He was NSDAP district press leader, and at that time, in this eventful night, not at home. My acquaintance with him was based on the occasional inclusion of my landscape photos in the 'District letters for the fighting front', edited by him. His wife, Gerda's school-chum, received us sympathizingly, but if we tacitly had hoped the children might spend the night here, no such invitation was given. Yet she helped Suse with dry clothes (coat, hat, stockings). Also my request for something to smoke was answered by the offer of a cigarette.

When we continued our nightly trip, from the Bürgerpark through the "Kammerweg", we noticed in bewilderment that some large fires also were raging along the Schiffdorfer Chaussee in the direction of our garden. Not only Ehler's log store located nearby was alight, but a large fire was flickering tremendously in front of the black nightly sky, in the immediate neighbourhood of our garden. Flabbergasted we asked ourselves if the house of the Bürgerhoff family, our garden neighbours, also would be on fire, where we planned to ask for shelter, as our own garden hut did not provide sufficient room and sleeping accomodation. In order to obtain certainty, and to save my exhausted loved ones I went ahead while Gerda and the children warmed themselves up at Ehlers' burning log store.

When I reached my destination, fortunately I found the Bürgerhoff's house unharmed. The large flickering fire was limited to Schuseil's nearby blubber factory, where a considerable amount of train oil had been stored. The Bürgerhoff family, husband, wife and daughter, were standing in front of the door. They also had had a number of stick-type incendiary bombs hit their grounds, but they had been able to extinguish the fires, and they had stayed awake to watch (p.21), with fascination, the impressive event of a tremendous conflagration. Our families had friendly relations, because the husband, who had built the two-storey house with indefatigable diligence and who cared for its large garden; he also looked after our garden. In return we had done them a favour every now and then, and jokingly we occasionally have said that we would ask them for shelter if we would have been bombed out. So they were not surprised in the face of the occurring desaster, when I appeared with my dependants which I had called to come. They had been waiting for us and found us more indigent than ever anticipated, as we came without any belongings, owning merely the shirts on our backs. Without many words they took us in, allocating the attic to us, which hitherto was occupied by Frau Hollmann, their daughter; her husband served at the front. She moved down a floor, in with her parents.

It may have been around two o'clock, when we, rather exhausted by this night's horrible expreience and impressions, lay down in unfamiliar beds, in need of sleep, yet remaining drowsy for a while, as we remained under the impression of flickering flames and scattering sparks. Finally these passed by and we were removed from the presence, suddenly turned trist, by a dreemless slumber.

(1) "Wesermünde" had been created and named in the Third Reich, by the merger of the hitherto administratively separate places Bremerhaven (the nucleus), Geestemünde and Lehe. (up)