Willi Meyer is now 82 years old and will never forget the night of October 15, 1944, when the worst hail of bombs fell on Braunschweig shortly before the end of the war. It was actually the same as always, says the retired master plumber, who was twelve years old at the time:"Bomb alarms were nothing unusual for us." That's why he's also playing a game of chess with his mother when the sirens wail. But this time bombs hit the house at Leopoldstrasse 4. He barricades himself in the basement with his parents and other residents. Only when the detonations stop do they dare to go out again. 26 incendiary bombs and two phosphorus bombs fall on the property within 40 minutes. His father's plumbing shop is also there.
Heaviest attack on Braunschweig
Braunschweig experienced the heaviest bomb attack during the Second World War that night. British planes dropped over 200,000 bombs on the Lion City. The incendiary and phosphorus bombs caused an inferno. The firestorm raged downtown for two days. "The heat was so great that the wallpaper through the wall began to turn black and threatened to burst into flames," remembers Willi Meyer. They removed all the furniture and tried to protect the apartment from the fire with water pads, sand and water. Willi Meyer Senior tried to extinguish the source of the fire in the courtyard. The phosphorus when it splashes on flammable material is almost impossible to extinguish. But Plumber Senior was in technical emergency assistance and trained in firefighting. He managed to save the house from complete destruction by fire. The livelihood - the plumbing - remained with the family. "I was lucky," says Meyer, "because without the business, without the house, everything would have turned out differently." But everything around was destroyed.
Mountains of rubble instead of half-timbered scenery
Willi Meyer's father's plumbing survives the bombing. All around, on the other hand, almost everything goes up in flames.Around three million cubic meters of rubble now characterize the cityscape of Braunschweig. 90 percent of the buildings are in ruins. It is difficult to recognize streets between the collapsed or burnt-out houses. Nevertheless:Willi Meyer and his mother make their way to their grandparents and have to climb over meters of rubble. "I can remember that the stones were very warm and we made sure that we got over the mountain, otherwise we would have gotten hot feet," says Willi Meyer. Officially, about 600 people died in the attack. 80,000 are homeless. The rail and road network, the supply of gas and water, everything is paralyzed. The master plumber remembers how full the apartment is suddenly after the attack. "The people who were bombed out were put up in emergency accommodation, for example in a farmer's barn in the country. A family was also quartered with us." After the end of the war, there were six of the Meyer family, instead of three, in their small apartment.
Coveted chewing gum
When the Americans liberated Braunschweig on April 12, 1945, many residents held out in the city's 24 bunkers - including Willi Meyer, for whom the last few days there were depressing. Because until the end Germans and Americans deliver bloody battles. "The grenade explosions were scary," says Willi Meyer. Most spend the time in the bunker reading or listening to the radio. In the people's radio, the propagandists of the Nazi leadership still harp on about the "final victory" and the "Harz Fortress". But the US tanks are already rolling through the streets. "At some point we dared to go outside. Many people had held white sheets out of the windows to surrender." A special moment for the then twelve-year-old. Because the American GIs were much more relaxed than the tightly drilled Wehrmacht soldiers. "'Have you a gum?' I asked right away. We always tried to get something from the Americans."
Nothing should be forgotten
Willi Meyer tries to process what he has experienced. In the past decades he has created 27 photo albums and collected countless newspaper articles. Nothing should be forgotten. "Actually, it was a sense of relief when it was finally over, but there were still major difficulties - like getting food, for example." The end of the war also means a new beginning. He wrote down his life in a book for his family. How he survived the war, how he continued his father's business and how he proudly passed it on to his son Ingo.