Posts Tagged ‘Dresden’

Margarethe Buhr, Dresden firebombing survivor

Thursday, February 15th, 2024

“I didn’t see anything. I didn’t cry a tear. Nothing at all.”
-Margarethe Buhr, Dresden firebombing survivor

“After the first attack, our flat was almost untouched. Following the second wave of bombing the street was completely ablaze. Families fled into the cellar. In the cellar, there was an argument between my father and an officer in the Wehrmacht. The officer had lost his mind and was threatening to kill his own family. My father tried to calm him down, but the altercation escalated. The men decided to continue the struggle outside in the street, but they never returned. My father’s charred remains were later discovered by the front door.

We stayed in the dark cellar until the morning. We crawled across the floor but were exhausted because of the smoke and lack of oxygen. A young man helped bring my ill sister to the garden in front of the home. My brother was blinded by the smoke. When we went outside, I witnessed destruction all around. None of our home remained standing.

I had to leave my sick sister in the garden, covered with a coat borrowed from a stranger. With my brother, sister-in-law, and their two children, we walked toward the Great Garden. Arriving on the Tiergartenstraße I realized that every house had been hit by bombs. Among the debris, a woman stood in the middle of the street. I explained that we needed an ambulance for my sister. Then the woman pointed something. There were five or six disintegrated ambulances that had melted in the catastrophic heat.”

Mrs. Buhr was twenty-five-years-old at the time of the attack. She lived in an area that was a short walk from the main train station, which was completely obliterated. She returned to Dresden a week after the bombings, nothing was left of her family’s home. She learned that her sister and father had burnt to death in the fires. One of her brothers disappeared in the forest while traveling, never to be found. Her surviving brother helped clear rubble from the area where their house once stood. Mrs. Buhr’s sister was found under the wreckage. She was cremated in the town square, the Altmarkt.

This portrait is a part of my From Above project, which is a collection of portraits and reminiscences of atomic bomb survivors and firebombing survivors from Dresden, Tokyo, Coventry, Rotterdam and Wielun. A portion of From Above is permanently exhibited at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims. It has also been exhibited in museums and exhibition spaces throughout Asia, Europe, North America and including the United Nations.

From Above was released as a limited edition book that was sold at PhotoEye.com. The book is sold out on the site, but I have the last 20 copies that can be bought directly from me. Contact me through social media or at paule.saviano@gmail.com if you’re interested in purchasing a book.

Anita John

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024

“It’s hard to put into words, it left a mark on our lives.”
-Anita John

I received the sad news that Mrs. Anita John passed away a few months ago. She was 12 years old when Dresden was destroyed by fire bombs on February 13th and 14th, 1945.  

Mrs. John was one of the first people I photographed in Dresden for my From Above project. I photographed her in front of the destroyed church, Trinitatiskirche, where her parents were married and where she received confirmation. It is located a few streets from where she survived the fire bombings. For most of her life, she lived just a couple of minutes away from her original home and the church.  
The family survived the first bombardment during the attack by taking shelter in the cellar of their home. Anita remembered her mother lying on top of her as the bombs rained down on the house. After the first wave, the roof of their flat was on fire and the windows had shattered.  However the first floor of the building was not yet ablaze. She saw a china set sitting peacefully on a small table, still resting in the exact spot they were prior to the bombing.

They brought valuables to the cellar to save them from the fire. Her father asked what she wanted from home, she said, “my doll carriage and school bag”. They did not evacuate the area and were caught unaware by the second attack. Fire raged outside the steel cellar door. It was producing extremely high temperatures inside the cellar. Oxygen quickly became scarce.  

Anita and her family lay down on the floor together with the other inhabitants of the building. She covered her mouth with a damp bathrobe that helped her to breathe whilst smoke filled the cellar. They all survived, until the immense heat from the raging firestorm consumed all the oxygen inside the cellar. All, but one, died of smoke inhalation.

Sixteen hours later, a soldier looking through the ruins for his wife broke a small window accessible from the street. Oxygen rushed into the bunker. Only Anita woke up amongst the dead. Her parent’s bodies lay silent, close by on the floor. The soldier saw Anita’s body move and took her to the aid station. The water in the damp bathrobe had allowed just enough oxygen to keep Anita breathing. The last memory Anita has of her parents is telling her father “I want to lie here”. Her mother responded, “Then let’s stay”.

I hadn’t seen Mrs. John in years. I kept in contact through three of her childhood friends that were photographed in From Above. I also photographed Mrs. John and her best friend, Mrs. Nora Lang, in front of the Trinitatiskirche. It was an honor to have Mrs. John as a friend.

Christa Hennemann

Thursday, February 17th, 2022

“Returning to the ruins of my old house at 85 Wittenbergerstrasse was a terribly sad experience.  We saw the burnt frame of my mother’s bicycle, my doll carriage was destroyed and our old clothing that was still hanging on an old drying line.  These are memories that have always stayed with me.  I wrote down my story during the 1990’s so my grandchildren know what happened.  What is also important to me is correspondence with bombing victims from other countries.

Later in life my sister was interested in what happened.  My mother and I spoke to her often about what we experienced. 

During East German times the number of casualties was reported at 35,000.  Researchers now put the casualty rate at 25,000.  I believe that the number is somewhere in between.  My husband, who is 15 years older than me, was a young soldier at the time.  Days after Dresden was destroyed he had to cremate the dead bodies that were stacked on wooden lorries.  Until this day he still can’t go to the remembrance ceremonies on February 13th because it is too painful.” 

-Christa Hennemann, Dresden firebombing survivor

Christa Hennemann was eight-years-old when Dresden was firebombed into cinder by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force. The attack was divided into three bombing raids dropping over 4,500 tons of high explosives, including incendiary bombs, onto the city known as “Florence on the Elbe.” This portrait is a part of my From Above project which featured portraits of atomic bomb and firebombing survivors from WWII. My limited edition book is available at https://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=I1040&i=&i2=

A selection of From Above portraits taken in Dresden and also including portraits of firebombing survivors from Coventry, Rotterdam, Tokyo and atomic bomb survivors is now being exhibited in Dresden at the outdoor display case in front of the Gewandhaus Strasse from February 12th-March 26th. Eight portraits will be displayed along with short testimonies. The photographs will change every two weeks.

Renate Baum

Tuesday, February 15th, 2022

“My family was living in the Dresden Neustadt at the time of the firebombings.  I was the eldest of five children and attended the Dresden Neustadt School.  For about a year my mother and all the children stayed with relatives outside the city because they thought it would be safer during the war.  In December 1944, we returned to Dresden because there had been no major attacks on the city.  Our family hoped that the war would end because they believed Dresden would eventually be attacked. 


At the time of the bombing we rushed into the cellar.  The house next to us suffered a direct hit and nine people died.  When the bomb detonated it had such an intense impact I thought the entire city was gone.  We spent all night in the cellar.  There was another family, who were artists, that had a flat in the building but they weren’t home at the time.  They returned in between bombing waves and told us what was happening in the city. 

In the morning our aunt from Heidelberg came by bicycle to check if we were alive.  Dresden Neustadt wasn’t hit badly compared to the rest of the city but still when we went outside there were fires raging.  The wind was carrying sparks everywhere.  Flames came out of the windows of buildings, filling the air with smoke.  Some men were putting water on roofs to prevent the sparks from igniting more fires.  We prepared a wagon and passed Alaunpark, the big park which was used by the military, on the way to Heidelberg.  There were many people leaving the city and even horse wagons pulling burnt and dead people.  We thought that nothing would be left and we would never see the city again.”

-Renate Baum, Dresden firebombing survivor 

Renate Baum is photographed in the cellar where her family experienced the firebombings 77 years ago.


On February 13th, 1945 the baroque city of Dresden, Germany was firebombed into cinder by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force. The attack was divided into three bombing raids dropping over 4,500 tons of high explosives, including incendiary bombs, onto the city known as “Florence on the Elbe.”  This portrait is a part of my From Above project which featured portraits of atomic bomb and firebombing survivors from WWII. My limited edition book is available at https://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=I1040&i=&i2=


A selection of From Above portraits taken in Dresden and also including portraits of firebombing survivors from Coventry, Rotterdam, Tokyo and atomic bomb survivors is now being exhibited in Dresden at the outdoor display case in front of the Gewandhaus Strasse from February 12th-March 26th. Eight portraits will be displayed along with short testimonies. The photographs will change every two weeks.

Rudolf Eichner

Sunday, February 13th, 2022

“I wrote a family chronicle for my children and grandchildren, with background about the past and what I experienced so that others don’t need to witness this again.” 

-Rudolf Eichner, Dresden firebombing survivor

Rudolf Eichner is photographed holding a chess piece that was given to him by his father while he was staying at the hospital.  His father regularly visited him to play chess.  He was injured as a soldier and was sent to a hospital in Dresden, which was located in a school near the city centre.

Shortly before 10pm on February 13th, 1945, the first wave of bombers approached Dresden.  The hospital was evacuated.  The injured grabbed valuables and made their way to the cellar. 

After the first wave of bombing the building remained intact but the houses on the opposite side of the street were in flames and the fire was spreading towards the hospital.

The hospital wasn’t as fortunate during the second wave of bombing, three hours later.  The cellar was overcrowded with inhabitants of the burning buildings.  The force of the explosions was more intense than during the first attack.  Rudolf crawled with the other injured across the street and into a garden.  Surrounded by growing flames, they formed a circle and fought back the flames for six hours.  The men beat back the approaching flames with anything they could find.

When the flames succumbed to the men’s exhausting efforts, Rudolf asked the man next to him where his chess set was.  The man said he had to use the board to beat the flames.  It was lost in the inferno.

Every year on the anniversary of the bombings Rudolf returned to the spot where he had fought the inferno.  Three years later, February 13th, 1948, he found a chess piece, a black knight, from the chess set destroyed by the flames.

Rudolf was one of the most active in getting a monument dedicated to the victims of the fire bombings. The small remembrance is located in the Altmarkt, the town square, where many of the dead were cremated in the days after the fire bombings.

Nora Lang

Saturday, February 12th, 2022

“My father said, “The war will have an awful end. If we are separated from each other, you have to leave the town! Because there will be a battle for the town.”
-Nora Lang


On February 13th, 1945 the baroque city of Dresden, Germany was firebombed into cinder by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force. The attack was divided into three bombing raids dropping over 4,500 tons of high explosives, including incendiary bombs, onto the city known as “Florence on the Elbe.” Nora Lang still lives close to where her original home was destroyed. From her living room window you can see the location of her old house. She is photographed next to a ruined church, Trinitatiskirche, one street from her home.

Nora was 13 1/2 when Dresden was destroyed. Her family lived in Dresden-Johannstadt. They survived the first attack by taking shelter in their cellar. After the first attack they had to leave their burning home and experience hell as they were chased by the firestorm through burning streets. They tried to find shelter several times during the deadly second and third attack waves which lasted the entire night and didn’t succumb until the next morning.

A selection of From Above portraits taken in Dresden and also including portraits of firebombing survivors from Coventry, Rotterdam, Tokyo and atomic bomb survivors is now being exhibited in Dresden at the outdoor display case in front of the Gewandhausgasse from February 12th-March 26th. Eight portraits will be displayed along with short testimonies. The photographs will change every two weeks.

This portrait is a part of my From Above project which featured portraits of atomic bomb and firebombing survivors from WWII. My limited edition book is available at https://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=I1040&i=&i2=

…Mourning Girl at the Sea of Tears…

Friday, February 11th, 2022

…February 2011… …Dresden…

On February 13th, 1945 the baroque city of Dresden, Germany was firebombed into cinder by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force. The attack was divided into three bombing raids dropping over 4,500 tons of high explosives, including incendiary bombs, onto the city known as “Florence on the Elbe.”


Reflection of the sculpture “Mourning Girl At the Sea of Tears” near a mass grave in the Heidefriedhof Cemetery. Feels like sculpture gives meaning to more than just the destruction of Dresden. It speaks for a world which has been ravaged by war.

Michal Salomonovič

Saturday, February 13th, 2021

“In November 1944, as the eastern front began to move west, my mother, brother (age 3) and I ( age 11) were then taken by open cattle car to Dresden. The weather was frigid. With about 500 others we were forced to work in a cigarette factory at Schandauerstraße 68 which had been converted to an ammunition factory. I worked twelve hours everyday on a milling machine cutting metal that was made into ammunition encasements for the Wehrmarcht. If our daily quotas weren’t met we had to work longer hours but we made sure not to exceed the quotas as a sudell form of resistance. Any sabotage would have been dealt with harshly.

We were never allowed to leave the factory. On the afternoon of February 13th, just hours before Dresden was firebombed, an SS officer declared that my younger brother was to be executed the next day because he was too young to work and was “a useless eater.” That night Dresden was bombed. The workers and guards sat in the large cellar all night. The workers who were sick stayed above in the factory dormitories. The factory was hit by incendiary bombs and the upper floors of the building burned. Only those in the cellar survived. My nerves broke down during the bombings. Everytime I heard a plane I went diarrhea. For a while after I was extremely traumatized and stuttered while I spoke.

When we left the cellar in the morning, white ash was everywhere. There were a lot of dead bodies, buildings were damaged, trees were on fire and even the streets had melted. I was ordered to clean up the rubble that was blocking streets and railway tracks while adults had to carry corpses.

In April we were put on a forced death march south west because the SS were fearful of the advancing Red Army. We were given no food and many of us were emaciated. At one point we were attacked by an Allied plane. The SS officers, who were guarding us, ordered us to jump into a ditch on the side of the road. After the plane flew away my mother, brother and I stayed on the ground and didn’t move while the SS officers quickly forced the others to continue. In their rush to flee they must have thought we were dead. After they left I went to a farmer in Pilsen, who gave me food. The first ten years after the war we didn’t speak about it.

The first time I came back to Dresden was in 1955 to meet with the others who had been forced to work in the factory. During the time of the GDR, I wrote to East German officials about my experiences at the factory but they denied that such a factory existed. After reunification a plaque was placed outside the factory saying that a lot of people were forced to work there during the Second World War.”

-Michal Salomonovič, Dresden firebombing survivor

Mr. Salomonovič is photographed outside the factory at Schandauerstraße 68. His family was originally from Ostrava, Czech Republic and were deported by the Nazis from Prague when he was 8 years old to Lodz ghetto then to several concentration camps before being sent to Dresden to work as a forced laborer.On February 13th, 1945 the baroque city of Dresden, Germany was firebombed into cinder by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force. The attack was divided into three bombing raids dropping over 4,500 tons of high explosives, including incendiary bombs, onto the city known as “Florence on the Elbe.”

This portrait is a part of my From Above project which featured portraits of atomic bomb and firebombing survivors from WWII. My limited edition book is available at https://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=I1040&i=&i2=

Anita John

Friday, February 12th, 2021

“It’s hard to put into words, it left a mark on our lives”

-Anita John, Dresden firebombing survivor

Anita John was twelve years old at the time of fire bombings. She lived with her family in Dresden-Johannstadt. Her family took shelter in a cellar with the other residents in the building. They did not evacuate the area and were caught unaware by the second attack. Fire was raging outside the steel cellar door. It was producing extremely high temperatures inside the cellar. Oxygen was quickly becoming scarce.

Anita and her family lay down on the floor together with the others. She covered her mouth with a damp bathrobe that helped her to breathe whilst smoke filled the cellar. At first they all survived the attacks, until the immense heat from the raging firestorm consumed all the oxygen inside the cellar. All, but one, died of smoke inhalation.

Sixteen hours later, a soldier looking through the ruins for his wife broke a small window accessible from the street. Oxygen came into the bunker. Only Anita woke up amongst the dead. Her parent’s bodies lay silent, close by on the floor. The soldier saw Anita’s body move and took her to the aid station. The water in the damp bathrobe had allowed just enough oxygen to keep Anita breathing.

The last memory Anita has of her parents is telling her father “I want to lie here”. Her mother responded, “Then let’s stay”. Anita grew up with her uncle.

Mrs. John was one of the few survivors I met who continued to live close to where she lived at the time of the bombings. I believed in some way it was a way for her to still be close to her parents. She is photographed in front of the destroyed Trinitatiskirche, where her parents were married and she was baptized.

On February 13th, 1945 the baroque city of Dresden, Germany was firebombed into cinder by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force. The attack was divided into three bombing raids dropping over 4,500 tons of high explosives, including incendiary bombs, onto the city known as “Florence on the Elbe.”

This portrait is a part of my From Above project which featured portraits of atomic bomb and firebombing survivors from WWII. My limited edition book is available at https://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=I1040&i=&i2=

Norbert Schlechte

Thursday, February 11th, 2021

“When we left the cellar our house was on fire, all the windows were shattered and we had to run. We lived on the fourth floor of a house in a poor area near the center of the city.

The worst thing wasn’t that our house was on fire – but my mother was Jewish. My father was not Jewish. So Hitler said I was mixed. Which is not true because if a mother is Jewish then the children are also Jewish. Before I was born my mother converted to Christianity but the authorities didn’t recognize this. We were a Christian family. I sang in the church choir and played with the Reverend’s kids.

In Dresden the Jewish population had been systematically persecuted, especially during Kristallnacht when 700 Polish Jews were expelled. In 1942, they wanted Dresden to be “Judenfrei”, free of the Jewish population. The remaining Jews were forced to wear a star on their clothing and work in the Zeiss Ikon armament factory which produced time fuses for the navy. They were evicted from their homes and forced to live in hastily built wooden barracks located in a camp called Judenlager Hellerberg on the outskirts of Dresden. In March 1943, they were deported to death camps. Of the 250 deported, there are 10 known survivors. It’s always easier to give the statistics but during all these deportations, I lost family and friends.

The day before Dresden was attacked the 17 remaining Jewish families received an order that they were required to report on February 16th for deportation to Theresienstadt. I still have a copy of the letter which is very rare. I only know one book that was published in the GDR times where one of these letters was printed. The journalists were courageous to have published it.”


-Norbert Schlechte, Dresden firebombing survivor

On February 13th, 1945 the baroque city of Dresden, Germany was firebombed into cinder by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force. The attack was divided into three bombing raids dropping over 4,500 tons of high explosives, including incendiary bombs, onto the city known as “Florence on the Elbe.”

This portrait is a part of my From Above project which featured portraits of atomic bomb and firebombing survivors from WWII. My limited edition book is available at https://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=I1040&i=&i2=