Beginning in the summer of 1944, the Wehrmacht used the building of Dresden’s Vitzthum Grammar School at Dippoldiswaldaer Gasse 9 as a reserve sickbay. This is where Mr E. had to undergo surgery in January 1945 after sustaining multiple wounds. When sirens sounded an air-raid warning on the evening of 13 February 1945, the wounded in the sickbay were transported to the cellar of the schoolhouse. Fires from neighbouring buildings threatened to spread to the still undamaged building.
During the fire-fighting, a second air raid began, and the school was hit several times. Mr E. managed to leave the cellar. “On the street, a hurricane-like firestorm swirled burning wood and paper, blazing branches and pieces of fabric, even people through the air. I reached the other side of the street crawling on all fours.” Several hours later the firestorm had subsided enough that it was possible to flee from the city centre to the Neustadt side of the Elbe. “The way there was harrowing: dead bodies everywhere, the injured whimpering for help, buildings still on fire and billowing smoke, bomb craters – partly filled with water, tattered tram wires, burned-out trams, splintered trees, a confusion of household items.”

Marked in 2001