Freiburg's bomb night: Memories of a 17-year-old from the horror

Freiburg's bomb night: Memories of a 17-year-old from the horror

On November 27, 1944, the city of Freiburg experienced a night of horror when British bombers moved across the sky and fell off more than 11,500 fire bombs. Irene Müller, just 17 years old, stood in neighboring Staufen and heard the ominous hum of the planes. "I still hear the sound today," recalls the contemporary witness, who saw the devastation in Freiburg the next day with its own eyes. "It was terrible, the streets were almost empty, and that shortly before Christmas."

The horror of the night

In just 20 minutes, Freiburg turned into a chaos of smoke and ruins. A total of 292 bombers of the Royal Air Force let over 3000 explosive bombs pound on the city between 7:58 p.m. and 8:18 p.m. The operation, known as "Tigerfish", aimed to break German resistance. The result was devastating: according to estimates, around 3000 people lost their lives, and historical old town center was almost completely destroyed. A miracle was that the symbol of the city, the Freiburg Münster, remained almost unscathed.

The air raid had catastrophic consequences for the residents. Almost every family was affected and many people fled the city to look for refuge in the surrounding small towns. Within a few months, 40,000 people left Freiburg, and at the end of the war there were fewer than 60,000 people in the middle of the debris.

A tragic story

Among the victims was the father of Irene Müller's later man, whose fate remains unclear to this day. "He was never found," reports Müller. Her father -in -law drove to Freiburg shortly before the attack to work there. Irene Müller never got to know him, and the family has not received any news from him to this day.

A myth surrounds the night of the attack: A Erpel in the city park is said to have warned with a loud snake against the upcoming bombing. Many people reached the bunkers in good time, but all help came too late for others.