Chemnitz contemporary witnesses: Gottfried Remtisch
Gottfried Remtisch was born in Chemnitz in 1933. His parents owned a bookshop near the Brühl.
At the age of eleven, I was an "air raid warden" in the public air raid shelter "Linde" opposite the theatre square. The phosphorus bombs also hit us. As the burning phosphorus ran down the cellar stairs, we got outside via the opening in the wall to the neighbouring property, the Hansa House. Everything was ablaze. Even our house opposite Schillerplatz and my parents' shop "Remtisch bookshop" on Obere Georgstraße, then Langemarkstraße. Although the flames were already blazing through the ground floor ceiling, I was still able to save the travelling typewriter.
In the morning, I left the city with a large wave of refugees. The destination was Auerbach/Erzgebirge, where my mother had found shelter with my little brother Lothar. However, they were on their way home that night. When they arrived at the main railway station, the sirens sounded. They had to go to the public air-raid shelter at the Chemnitzer Hof. The next day, they came looking for me and wrote on the ruins of our house: "Where is Gottfried?"
This is where the contemporary witness lived his story:
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