Kreuzberg area bombing Januayr30.1943

Discussions on every day life in the Weimar Republic, pre-anschluss Austria, Third Reich and the occupied territories. Hosted by Vikki.
Post Reply
CRAIG CARR
Member
Posts: 113
Joined: 07 Oct 2009, 22:07

Kreuzberg area bombing Januayr30.1943

#1

Post by CRAIG CARR » 31 Jan 2017, 07:01

Today marks the 74th anniversary of my mother's home at Grossbeerenstrasse 39,bombed to rubble at 7p.m, two doors from the corner of Hagelbergerstrasse. Across the street stood the family owned Schade Apoteke ( drug store) that opened it;s doors to help residents with needed emergency medical care as Hitler barred all ambulances, fire trucks and doctors from responding to any suburb hit in air raids. Being techless and computerless. I am not able to interract with the remarkable sites AHF memebrs have posted of pics of Berlin in 1943 to 1945. My Grandfather's family owned apartment building of 5 stories collapsed into the basement as the stairwell was turned into a raging fire tornado from the gaslines exploding in the street. My mother ( now 92) and her sister were thrown face first into the street as the front doors blew off the hinges as they carried a laundry basket of dishes from the blast. It was my grandparents greatest regret that they could not go back to the vacant lot with a shovel before they immigrated to America and dig down the dirt to the staircase and to the basement as the northside of it ( next to #41) as it had an alcove where they packed their family albums, and his sheet music,my mother's Olympic opening ceremony costume and the family's photo albums spanning 100 years, and of his day in the Kaiser Wilhelm boys choir days with albums of all the palaces they performed in representing Berlin..A suitcase filled with the three sisters dolls and Weinachten kerzen holders amongst other treasures like a book written about the three daughters by a renter published there called Das Drei Madelhaus.. The lot has sat vacant for 72 years and was finally sold to a book publisher who is bulldozing the apartment nest to it and will build a new business on top of it. I had written to him including photos of the home and it;s original owner's family, asking if when the basement ares is dredged out to see if the alcove hidden memorabilia of the family was still intact if we could pay for shipping those scraps of junk to him that were part of my moms; life and that of her still living kid sister as it would make a wonderful surprise for them.. but alas my lack of German got me nowhere. I had hoped I might be able to atleast see a picture of the bombed residence to get someone to print it ( I can't print anything) and then I could frame it next to the one existing pic of her home we have before it's implosion. .A neighbor of mine visited Berlin and hoped to get to the vacant lot and pick up a few pieces of the concrete from it.s foundation but got there in a raging rain storm that turned everything to mud and not possible...I have reason to believe those things packed away may well have survived under the 15 feet of mud and debris..as the organ my grandfather played at the Domkirche was unearthed intact 50 yrs after being buried and cleaned and is being played once
it was restored...as of the 1990's... nice to think that his were the last hands to play it before the church was bombed to rubble...and survived. Would anyone know who the utility company for gas and electric would be for the Kreuzberg area that I could write them to ask in their digging if they found anything? And alert them that the housekeeper and her children were never seen leavking their basment apart,ent and may have been buried alive during that air raid. Any ideas? thanks, CRAIG..

CRAIG CARR
Member
Posts: 113
Joined: 07 Oct 2009, 22:07

Re: Kreuzberg area bombing Januayr30.1943

#2

Post by CRAIG CARR » 04 Feb 2017, 00:02

ps I forgot, if anyone is interested in seeing what Berlin was like in the 1930's and 40's, and the family owned apartment building I posted about,that was built by my Great Grandfather ans survived until 74 years ago... google has dropped the original posting ( I just learned) an it is now on their ARCHIVES tinyurl site. If you type in my Mother's name: Ruth Kaplaneck album.. it will take you right to it.You may want to hit the back button about 4 times as they seem to have started the album on page 5.
You will also see what the ration card ID and food amounts alloted to the public were, Christmas cards sent by Berliners to their servicemen, and the holiday cards Hitler had printed up for each of the five years of war for the boys to send home. There are pages on the 1936 Olympics my mom performed in with the highlight being the formation of a living Olympic flag.. she is the fourth girl from the left lower left hand side facing the torch. She performed in the Orchid Show of 1940, and the picture from it was taken one week before the first bombs of WW2 fell on Berlin with a listing of the first month of air raids. You'll also see the mandatory Ahnen Pass book that every kid had to filll out in school listing one's relatives , their professions, addresses and names and ethnic makeup and religious affiliation. Unbeknownst to the familes, they were turned over to the Gestapo and copied onto "lists" before being given back to the students in class.. and later used to arrest people and deport them.
The overnight Ermachtigungsgesetz laws are also shown as they were presented to the public in the newspaper on March 24,1933... dissolving the democratic constitution and terminating ALL civil liberties and rights for the following 12 years.Laws were passed without debate or consent as no opposition or dissent was allowed.It was a close media dictatorship.. .If you know little of German civilian's experience during WW2, this might shed some visual light upon that. What my mother's family experienced, was replicated in millions of homes across Germany daily, and a bit terrifying. mit freundlischen Grussen, Craig,.


Post Reply

Return to “Life in the Third Reich & Weimar Republic”