My Life During WWII and Beyond

The air attacks increase

The bombing attacks increased; we never knew from one minute to the next if we would have an attack or will be living. By this time we had many daytime attacks as well as at night. At times when a large bomb would hit close to our home, the cement floor in the basement would buckle and we with our seats were airborne. The constant bombing was extremely stressful; it was very hard on our nerves, very traumatic. The acrid smell of burned buildings was overwhelming and the constant smell of death was everywhere. The burning smell in the air was there, even when no buildings were burning. There was not much time before we were bombed again, so we lived in constant stress, not knowing what would happen even in the next hour or hours or days.

One day, my mother and I went to the outskirts of the city. As we came into a neighborhood with one-family houses, it was unbelievable what we saw, the whole area was demolished. The smell of decaying bodies was so severe, that I almost fainted. We did not stay there very long and hurried away from this God forsaken place. I also watched people in our neighborhood who were recovering bodies. These people were burned up and the corpse of grown people was like that of a little child. Funerals were held every few days and most bodies were buried in a mass graves. Each body was in a coarse wood coffin, it was more like a crate, and in the summertime stringy, smelly liquid oozed out of those boxes. I will never forget the smell and the picture; it is imbedded in my memory.

The city’s waterlines were broken and no water was available. With buckets in hand we went to the big water reservoir that was just down the street from us, to get water. The only bad thing about this was that it was covered with debris and ashes. We used this to flush the toilet, and the rest, after straining and boiling we could use for washing and some hand laundering. Our laundry was hand-washed and dried by hanging it over chairs. Everything was done quickly. Unlike before the war when we could take time, now everything was done quickly. It had to be done, so we got it done. The gas was shut off, because many people died when their gas line in their house broke. In order to heat water we had to fire up our cook stove. The city came with a water tanker, eventually, so we could get some fresh water for personal consumption.