Chemnitz contemporary witnesses: Käthe Lippmann
I was 8 years old at the time and lived with my parents and my younger brother at 52 Theaterstraße, 4th floor. In other words, in the centre of the city.
On the evening of 5 March 1945, as usual, there was a pre-alarm. My mother, my father had been drafted into the Wehrmacht at the beginning of 1945, made sure that we got ready to go into the basement of the house. Everyone in the house gathered there when the air raid alarm sounded. Everyone was afraid that something would happen.
I heard the sound of an aeroplane and shortly afterwards there was a murderous crash. It didn't stop for a long time. At times the plaster trickled off the walls. Suddenly it became quiet.
One of the men ventured up to see what the situation was like. He came back and said it was terrible outside, there were fires everywhere. But we couldn't hear anything in the house. Then the other two men left the cellar with him. After what felt like a long time, they came back. They reported that the two houses No. 50 and 52 had been spared from the bombs, but the roof truss in house No. 48 was starting to burn. On the other side, all the houses are still standing.
We have to do something to prevent the fire from spreading to our house. So we got everything out to put out the fire. Our neighbour, an old woman, my 2-year-old brother and I stayed in the cellar. They only came back in the morning. They were physically exhausted but happy because they had managed to prevent the fire from spreading to our house.
My mum now took us upstairs. Back on the 4th floor, I saw a scene of horror outside. There were flames everywhere. The theatre was on fire. In the residential and commercial buildings, the flames were eating their way down from floor to floor. People sat in the tram carriages, which always took fruit and vegetables from the market hall through the city in the morning, and watched everything burn. Theatre Street was full of people walking towards Falkeplatz, Chemnitz River.
I have never forgotten that night for the rest of my life.
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