Chemnitz contemporary witnesses: Manfred Weber

Although I was only just 3 years and 8 months old, I can still remember that night of the bombing very well. My father had died at the end of 1943 and I lived with my mother in the corner house at Planitzstraße 58, directly opposite the Planitzwiese. The Schöne butcher's shop was also located in this corner building. That night, after the siren alarm, the residents of the house went to the air-raid shelter, as they did after every alarm. There were several strong tremors during the bombing. After some time of silence, the air-raid warden went outside and came back shouting: "Get everything out now, the house is on fire!"

Everyone ran outside and saw that the house was already burning up to the penultimate floor. We lived on the ground floor, which wasn't on fire yet. After my mum had put me in a handcart opposite the burning house on the Planitzwiese, she and a helper tried to get things out of the flat.

She was able to get my duvet and some clothes out of the flat the first time. A second attempt was no longer possible due to the danger of falling debris. I can still see the burning house in front of me today and two people on the roof of the neighbouring house who tried to prevent the fire from spreading to the house with buckets of water, which they succeeded in doing. There were a lot of people on the Planitzwiese that night who were able to escape from the burning houses.

To make matters worse that night, the second time my mother tried to get things out of the flat, my rescued duvet was stolen from the handcart.

The greatest pain I felt at the sight of the burning house, however, was that my toys were still in the house and burned with it. My mum later told me that I shed the most tears that night over this.

Given my age, I only realised the danger we were in that night later, when my mother and other people involved told me.

After a short stay in the neighbouring barracks, my mother, a saleswoman employed at the Schöne butcher's shop and I made our way to Röllingshain on foot with a handcart. There we found temporary accommodation with the shop assistant's sister.

I still have a vivid memory of the view from the Garnsdorfer Höhe back to Chemnitz, where the sky was glowing red.

Despite all the adversities of that night, we were lucky that our house was not hit by an aerial mine or an explosive bomb, otherwise I would not have been able to write down my memories of that time.