Chemnitz contemporary witnesses: Peter Weinhold

I was 7 years old at the time and can remember that terrible time very well.

We had a nice flat on Thüringer Weg. Because of the increasing number of air raids, in 1943 my mother moved with me and my sister, who was 3 years younger (our father was a soldier), to our grandparents, who lived at Gartenstraße (now Kieselhausenstraße) 2 in Rabenstein. This used to be a brewery building with a very deep, large, massive cellar. There was only one air raid in the immediate vicinity of Rabenstein in 1944.

Even before 5 March, there were very frequent "air raid alarms" during the nights, which woke us from our sleep and sent us to the cellar. We then had to get dressed quickly and everyone had to take a small suitcase with the most necessary things for a longer stay in the cellar.

The worst experience was on 5 March, although we were not directly affected. During the night, many bombed-out people from the city came to our cellar, which was already full.

The next day, our mum walked to Thüringer Weg. Our house had been hit by bombs, but our flat was still intact. So she persuaded a haulage contractor to take her to Thüringer Weg the next day in a horse-drawn vehicle. This was very difficult as many places were still burning and the roads were partially buried. Nevertheless, they managed to get as far as the flat. In the meantime, the house had burnt down and there was nothing left to get out.

We lived in the cellar for two to three weeks in anticipation of the enemy (we didn't know at first whether it would be Russians or Americans).

When we moved to our new flat in Stollberg at the end of the war in mid-May, everything was still there, including my sister on a handcart.