ultimately.
Q: So they bound together, as there was no alternative to perseverance, or how would you formulate that?
I would say, also from the perspective of my current experience, after one has not forgotten this whole thing so to speak and has reprocessed it, that the intensification of the bombing, which of course had the goal of weakening the morale of the German population, that these attacks, self-proclaimed by the British as terror attacks — I read that in directives, that is available to everyone today, one can look that up in any archive — did not lead to the destruction of morale, but rather precisely at this point the national socialist party, the NSDAP, approached the ordinary people and offered assistance, in that, after the bombing, they established emergency kitchens and saw about housing, so that the schism between the Volk, between the ordinary people, and the abhorrent national socialist fighters was not compounded.
Q: But were there expressions of hate, or of national socialist disposition toward the bombers?
Hatred toward the Allies from the populace, which expressed itself, as I later encountered, in the lynch mob of Rüsselsheim, I did not experience such incidents in my environment as a child here in Berlin. However, I did experience how, immediately following severe shelling, distraught people screamed, “This cursed war, when will this cursed war be over?” The so-called snitches and the absolute party supporters tolerated that in this situation, did not step in, and to put it simply, allowed nationalistic ideology to fade away.
Q: Did one differentiate between Britons and Americans? Between day and night attacks?
To answer that in one sentence, the Americans were given preference. That may be related to the fact that the British forces had been waging the war for longer, and only launched attacks at night. One had a different, more open-minded relationship with the American pilots than with the British. That fact demonstrated itself in 1945, as the American troops advanced into the area of Leipzig. After just a few days, the Americans threw chocolate to the children from their cars, and from the beginning it was a much different relationship than what had been expected.
Q: But the bombs which fell during the day could kill just as well as those which fell at night.
Of course. Purely judging by effect one can see no difference. On the contrary, it was the case that in the last months of the war there were violations by US forces, such as fighter planes in Brandenburg which shot farmers while they were tilling their fields. Bicyclists too were shot by fighter planes. Unfortunately there were such incidents. On the other hand, that was only a short period of time. The strategy of US forces was, from the very beginning, different and not so strongly oriented toward carpet bombing.
Q: That was already clear as a child?
That was clear to us even as children. That was clear as a child. The American forces, the bomber groups — I experienced them later in 1944-45 in the area of Leipzig — concentrated primarily on coal hydrogenation plants, in order to liquidate the fuel which was so important to the Wehrmacht. There were fewer terror attacks which were directed solely against the civilian population of the cities.
Q: Thank you very much.
I hope I have contributed a little.
Q: Yes, there aren’t many anymore who can relate that from personal experience.
My American Experience
Were you there for the storming of Normandy beach? The Bombing of Germany? The Victory in the Pacific? Or perhaps your friends and relatives have passed on stories of their own World War II experiences that you would like to share.