Chemnitz contemporary witnesses: Lucia Scholz
Lucia Scholz, née Schötzig, lived through 5 March in the city centre. During the pre-alarm in the morning, she fetched her brother and a friend from their flat in Zimmerstraße near the theatre square. "We ran very quickly - into the lime tree and down to the cellar. And then there was a powerful detonation. All three of us fell down the stairs and were trapped and couldn't get out again. We got back out through the breakthroughs in the wall and took many detours home."
Once there, they were shocked by the sight of their flat: "My piano had slipped into the other room due to the detonation. The pictures were off the wall, the shards in the duvets. We were busy clearing up the shards until the evening. The next pre-alarm came at half past eight. Then we set off again with a small suitcase and a jar of honey - back to the lime tree.
I still have it all in my head. The images I've just spoken to you about all come back to me. And it's always very difficult at night when you're alone."
Lucia Scholz found shelter in the Luisenschule on the night of 5 March to 6 March 1945 and then walked with her family via Niederwiesa to Borstendorf.
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