Chemnitz contemporary witnesses: Rosmarie Ciesielski
I was called up for the Reich Labour Service (RAD) in Thalheim/Erzgeb. After six months, I was to join the so-called Kriegshilfsdienst (KHD) in Bad Lausick. The transfer was planned for 5 March 1945.
On the route from Thalheim to Chemnitz, we were surprised by an air raid alarm and stopped outside the station for a short time while bombs fell somewhere. When we had to go to the darkened air-raid shelter a little later, a young lad there inappropriately and absurdly whistled the song "In the night, man does not like to be alone, because love under the bright moonlight is the most beautiful - you know what I mean - partly and partly and besides". . .
There was no chance of continuing our journey that day, so some maidens and I sought shelter with my fallen brother's wife at Uferstrasse 26 (near the railway bridge and Farben-Merz).Farben-Merz), got buckets of water, which for some reason was no longer available locally, and got hold of what little we could get for dinner without food stamps and were still sitting at the table when the sirens wailed in the evening.
We hurried into the air-raid shelter with our belongings, where all the residents had gathered. We soon heard the muffled blasts with fear.
We didn't have to wait for the all-clear. The reconnaissance officer sent out informed us with horror: "There's fire everywhere!" We rushed outside in panic as well as into the house, into the flat with its overturned furniture and billowing curtains. We met all sorts of people, including liberated prisoners of war - and lost sight of each other again.
Hours later, we made our way on foot along partly rubble-laden roads to Niederwiesa, from where a train journey to our home town (Freiberg/ Großhartmannsdorf) might be possible.
Soot-blackened, exhausted and with red eyes, they reached their home town, where they had a tearful reunion.
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