My daughter, Edelgard, then 8 years old, was caught by the unbelievable huge storm of fire and hurled directly towards the front in a way that you could no longer distinguish her legs from her head. She squeezed together like a ball. I jumped towards the fire trying to get her out of it. It was no longer possible to straighten my knees, the big storm simply bent them. In that squat down position with sleeping Peter in my arms, I fought with the fire to get my daughter out. There was no time to say a prayer, but at the same time, God’s power with me was immense and who knows how many angles where fighting at my side.
We had to make a great effort to get down a street. Glowing phosphorous sparkles were always above our heads all inside a carpet of moisture. The carpet of moisture would have been heavy enough even without the phosphorous sparkles burning within.
At Bonisch Square there was an advertising pillar where we stopped to take a short breath. The fire and the storm prevented us from staying for a longer period of time. I took another breath, then we continued our way down the street.
Nothing but burning houses on both sides, glowing brick stones completely red, 1 to 1 1/2 meter in dimension. Here and there were dead animals and always the phosphorous sparkles above our head while we were running along the street I said only one prayer. ” God kill or save all of us. Should you save us, I will devote my life to you and teach my children to serve you! God saved all of us and I kept my promise to this day.
When we had reached the end of the street it was like through a miracle. People were running towards us, everybody had a person stand behind his back by whom he was pushed ahead. At the end of the street, a strong whirlwind had broken out which circled around. We would never have been able to make it and I don’t know whether everybody was pushed ahead in the same manner. Whoever it was, the raid wardens or any other trained personnel they must have had a extraordinary strength. For me they were nevertheless angles in human form.
People had burns on their feet, others had even lost some of their children. To me, it was like a miracle. Nothing was scorched, nothing was burned. I did not lose any of my children!
We tried hard to get further ahead to the Elbwiesen or down to the bank of the river. We couldn’t recognize anything, so many people I couldn’t believe it.
Completely exhausted in every respect we found an empty moving van standing in front of us. Whether somebody just parked it there “I don’t know! Nobody was inside – yet. I laid my children down in the corner but first of all, I examined my little Peter to see whether he was still alive as he did not moved any finger, just limp. When I noticed that he was breathing I could only thank God with all my heart! The moving van was soon filled with People.
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I had no idea of my Mothers letter that she send to my Brother. I did received a letter from my Mother about the struggles after the War. Now, I will continue with my original posts.