Contemporary witnesses of 5 March 1945
The last witnesses
The horrors of the Second World War, the bombing of the city of Chemnitz on 5 March 1945, the sight of a bombed-out city, streams of refugees to surrounding towns and communities, poverty and hunger are images that fewer and fewer Chemnitz residents can consciously remember.
This makes it all the more important to hold on to memories, preserve them for future generations and make them accessible. The fates of Chemnitz's war children leave us speechless and make us realise what happened in our city 76 years ago. We have collected very personal stories that the war children aged between 2 and 17 lived through.
The stories are small pieces of a jigsaw puzzle from their own town that help us to understand history and the cruelty of war. There is no claim to completeness, and some details may not appear in history books, addresses may only be approximately correct and personal opinions may play a major role. The memories of contemporary witnesses and their experiences of how valuable it is to live in peace are irreplaceable.
Brochures
Contemporary witness: Renate Aris
Renate Aris is one of the last survivors of the Holocaust in Saxony. She tells her life story again and again. She says: "I am a person who is not afraid."
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Contemporary witness films
2021: "The eternal March" - memories of a childhood during the war
The film "The Eternal March" tells the stories of four Chemnitz residents who grew up in the Third Reich and had to experience the war and the bombing raids as children. The sad climax of the war came on the night of the bombing on 5 March 1945, during the heaviest attack on the city of Chemnitz. Thousands lost their lives, their livelihoods and their homes that night. In very personal conversations, the protagonists give us an insight into life before the war, the militarisation during the Nazi era, how the war came to the city and into the lives of the children and how it still shapes them today.
With contemporary witnesses Helga Lehnert, Barbara Wähner, Wolfgang Eckart, Roland Schulze
2019: "The last witnesses"
Every year on 5 March, Chemnitz commemorates the destruction of the city by Allied air raids in 1945 and now celebrates this as Chemnitz Peace Day. To ensure that what happened is not forgotten, the city of Chemnitz called on contemporary witnesses to describe their personal experiences in January 2018. A total of 45 very personal reports were received, each depressing in its own way. These memories are often being told for the first time. A film was made from these stories for Peace Day 2019. "The last witnesses" describe what they experienced as children or young people in their hometown of Chemnitz, how family members or friends died, how their fathers and brothers never returned from the battlefields of Europe, how their homes or streets were reduced to rubble.