Chemnitz contemporary witnesses: Christa Schluckebier
On 5 March 1945, I was living with my parents in Chemnitz at Seumestraße 7, which was right next to what was then the employment office. I was the youngest of three siblings, my two older brothers had already been killed in the war. When someone came to the job centre by bike, I often offered to look after their bike in the afternoon after school. If I was lucky, I was paid 5 or 10 pfennigs. I would then go to the grocer's shop in Seumestraße and buy 5 or 10 cream malts.
On 5 March 1945, we had to go back into the air-raid shelter at around 10 p.m. because the sirens were going off and the bombers were coming. This time it was the worst attack on our town. I begged my parents to flee the town for fear of the following bombs. We took our handcart and, as we often did, moved it that night to a farmer called Anke in the Furth neighbourhood.
When we returned to our flat in the early morning, our house had burnt down to the first floor. My father immediately started to clear out our flat on the ground floor. He took the parlour sofa on his back and transported it to the courtyard. It's unbelievable how much strength a person can develop! We cleared out the flat for a while until I forbade it so that the glowing ceiling wouldn't fall on our heads. Then it collapsed too. We were able to temporarily store the saved furniture and other things at the job centre until we were able to move in with my grandfather in Borna. My father organised a horse-drawn cart and we used it to transport all the furniture and things to my grandfather on the outskirts of the town.
Contemporary witness brochures
The eternal March
Memories of a childhood during the war
The last witnesses
When the old Chemnitz died in a hail of bombs