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Wiesbaden, 30 July 1945

All you dear ones. After a long and hard time we once again received news from one another. First came Johanna’s letter with the picture two weeks ago, last week Margie’s letter. The first one came from Augsburg, the second from Heidelberg. We were very happy that the dear Lord protected you so mercifully all those years, and that none of you was affected by the war. The children have grown up, Johanna brought the letter from work and showed me the picture. I recognized Paul right away and then the others. We had heard of Willi’s little boy from Hedwig’s relatives. We received news last year via the Red Cross. Dear Aunt Käthe has also gone home, she is fine after so many years of weakness and suffering. The Trubus uncle suffered from the same complaint. He died last month at the age of 80. Now I will tell you about us. We survived all the hardships and are healthy. Father has been working for the last three years at the Rauh’s carpenter's shop shop in the Helmutstrasse.

His health is good, but he has gotten old. Does not hear that well any more but it is good that he has something to do, the time passes more quickly. Johanna worked for four years in Finks’ household, now she has already worked in their shop for four years. She likes it well there, they have had shoes to sell until now. At the moment it is not especially good, but we hope things will improve. She earns a good wage. I am busy with the household as always. Of course there is no way I can bake or roast anything, we have neither gas nor coal. Since February 2nd, the day in which Wiesbaden was turned into rubble, much has changed. People have to go into the woods to get wood for cooking, many already have large piles in their courtyards, they also fetch the wood from the destroyed houses, everything is taken and burned. So far we could not get anything in the forest, because for that you have to have a cart and we don’t have one, at the moment we get the empty cartons from Finks for cooking. So we go on. We hope to get a ration of wood for the winter. The English have the Ruhr Valley with the coal mines and the French have the coal mines in the Saar Valley. How that will turn out we don’t know. We were pretty well off during the first years of the war, Wiesbaden was seemingly spared by the bombers, until last fall. One evening we had air raid alarm, it lasted until three AM, then came the signal that no more bombers were in the area. We went to bed, suddenly it turned as bright as day, something flew over us making a dreadful noise, suddenly it crashed two, three times, we all rushed half dressed to the cellar, and that was repeated several times, this was the beginning of the destruction. Until then only a few bombs had fallen here and there. Those [last fall] were mines, some said they were the V1 which we used against England. The destruction was terrible. From then on the entire population was gripped by great fear. We began to look for shelter every night, because our cellar is almost entirely above ground, our stupid municipal government had not seen to anything. Other cities had bunkers, we had water basins at all the open areas. They did not do us any good at all. In the schools the basements were set up as air raid shelters. Together with the other inhabitants of the house, we mostly walked over to the Vocational School in the Wellritzstrasse. It had an entrance at the Herrmannstrasse. That was five minutes away. I think I walked back and forth hundreds of times. Also, during the last six months shafts were driven into the mountains. We also spent nights in the shafts at the Riederberg Mountain. Of course everything half finished, filled with thousands of people. One evening we were there when the alarm came, we noticed also that something was happening, some time later some people came in precipitously, they said that once again there were mines in the Dotzheimerstrasse, also in the Zimmermannstrasse. Others said on the opposite side, the number 40 next door, and then we knew that our house had been hit also, we went home at half past two, all was quiet, it smelled of fire, from then on we only went to bed half undressed. The next morning Johanna and I went there to check, we saw a large pile of rubble. Numbers 36, 38, 40, 42, totally destroyed.

The other houses belonging to the Müllers are also severely damaged, the Killianshaus was seriously hit by a bomb several weeks before. From our house only the facade is standing. I cannot describe to you how awful that felt. It was on October 12th. God sent it, he will continue to help us. He wants to show us what earthly goods are, and that we must never depend on them. From then on it got worse and worse, we hardly dared go to bed at night, but rather went from one air raid shelter to the next at night until Finks offered Johanna that she could sleep in their cellar at night. The cellar in the Kirchgasse is completely underground. From then on Johanna stayed there at night and arranged, together with the other inhabitants of the house, to sleep on the shoe shelves wrapped in some bedding, she went there for six months. One Sunday evening some bombs fell again at our house which hit the Blücherstrasse as well as the pastor’s house at Blücher Square, at that time the windows and doors of our apartment were pushed out and broken, at that time Father also had an inflammation of the veins, we slept for five weeks in the cellar at Wissners until he was able to repair our place. From that time forward I would get up very early in the morning and cook something and when there was alarm I went to the Vocational School and looked for shelter. We had brought linen and clothing to Ennerich, it is still there. The uncle there also died, Willi was not in the war. Ella got married, her husband is missing in Russia. Until the 2nd of February Wiesbaden was in reasonably good condition compared to other cities. That evening all was quiet, we went to bed at 10:30 after the radio had reported our area as free from the enemy. At 10:45 there was pre-alarm. I got up at once and dressed when soon the full alarm was sounded. At that point I was already in the cellar and after 11 it really started. It cracked and crashed and the earth shook for 45 minutes. The heavy doors of the cellar were ripped out and we expected the collapse of the house at any moment. Father had stayed in bed until the bombs fell, then he came to the cellar half dressed, we all crouched in a heap on the floor and expected death. But the dear Lord protected us, when it got a little more quiet and we smelled smoke the men went out first. Everything lay all over the place in the house, doors, windows, etc. The chimneys had fallen down, incendiary bombs all over the place which had not exploded yet, the whole area of the Ring was burning and there was a strong wind. Father went into the apartment and first of all got dressed. I also looked into the apartment and then took my luggage and went back to the air raid shelter at the Vocational School. I stayed there until the morning. During the night Johanna came from the Finks with another girl through the burning city to see if we were still alive. In such moments that is, after all, the main thing for everyone. The Bleichstrasse is very damaged. Along the Ring, from the Frankenstrasse to the Rheinstrasse everything is rubble on both sides, and then the same up to the railroad station. Old Herr Rau had two houses in the Helmutstrasse and one in the Bleichstrasse; two are totally destroyed, one can be repaired. His workshop is still standing. Wilhelmstrasse, Taunusstrasse, Kurhaus and Theater, the area of the villas, are all destroyed. Strangely enough the churches are all still standing, though several are damaged; the parish hall also still stands. But many schools are in ruins, including the Luisenschule, where you went. One could really see the destruction during the day then. For one week there was no water, for some time no electricity, we used water from the Faulbrunnen fountain for cooking. Now there were several more air attacks, furthermore thousands [of planes] passed overhead into the country. We were so disheartened, because there was no quiet by day or by night. We took our bedroom furniture and bedding to Nordenstadt in order to save something. When the enemy came closer and closer and they said the city was to be defended I was completely discouraged because I imagined artillery fire in the city as terrible; at the end I was in Nordenstadt and there I experienced the shooting, but nothing much happened in the village. Then the Americans crossed the Rhine and the Main Rivers, our troops retreated or became prisoners. Ours blew up the bridges across the Rhine, three alone near Mainz, they scuttled all the ships on the Rhine, destroyed the foodstuffs and left us nothing. There was no train traffic any more. No postal service, no streetcar and no bus. Now we have the Americans here, the French on the left side of the Rhine, and because they had Mainz they also wanted Wiesbaden. We are all glad that that did not happen. Unfortunately Hitler and his cronies are to blame for all the misfortune we are suffering. In 1918 things were still good but now Germany is finished. Now all the areas are cut off from one another [referring to the four occupation zones], therefore it is also difficult to get food . We get five pounds of potatoes a week, three pounds of bread, 75 grams of butter, 175 grams of meat, everyone knows you cannot live off that. To make matters worse, we also have a transit camp for Poles here, there are thousands of Poles still here and they rob and eat up all the city has.

Nothing happened in Nordenstadt. Wilhelm was not in the war, his son is grown but was not drafted either. Wilhelm’s wife is very competent, she has already given us some things. This evening Johanna plans to go there with a shoe salesman who has a car to get some potatoes.

We get vegetables at a nursery, he knows Johanna through the business, otherwise we would not get them either.

Ernst Emmel had taken his family to Allendorf, he was already working at the airport because he has no other job any more. The civil servants who had been in the party have all been let go. Wilhelm has also lost his job as treasurer, former Communists are now in all the municipal jobs, surely this will not end well.

After all, many felt forced to join the party in order to get a job. The only tradespeople needed are those in the building trades, there are hardly any masons and carpenters. The oldest son of Wilhelm from Bechtheim was also killed in action, also a son-in-law. Just now many soldiers are returning home, but in what state, one could cry. Many men from Steeden were killed. Albert, the only son of Ernst and Luise Bender, Willi’s godfather, died three years ago in Russia. Vietor’s oldest son remained in Stalingrad. Walter Martin from Frankfurt was in the war as a medic and also did not return so far. For country people this is terrible, all they have is work. Also one of the Pretorius sons from Steeden was killed. Hanjuste Goth is still living, Karl’s son Heinrich was somewhere in a military hospital, we don’t know if the Russians have him. Otto from Schadeck has not returned yet either, Heinrich Büttner has not yet returned. I could fill many a page in this way. Forty percent of Wiesbaden has been destroyed whereas in some cities it is eighty to ninety percent. And now the occupation has seized [the houses along] whole streets, so the apartments are very scarce. [These houses became offices for the occupation administration as well as living quarters for the officers] Many people are surviving in the ruins, we don’t know how it will be in the winter. Our apartment is in reasonable shape, except for the windows which are covered with cardboard and some cellophane to let in light. Thank goodness we got our furniture and clothing back. Imagine what it is like to be able to go to bed at night undressed and have peace and quiet. Of course hunger is also difficult and it is a daily guest in all families. How will that ever get better? We are three persons, we have 525 grams of meat, no fat on it and a big bone included in the weight, everything is without fat and so is tasteless, you just get it down. People have plenty of money but they cannot buy anything with it. The country people will only barter things, anyone who has anything takes it and gets something to eat for it. Hedwig’s mother’s death was sudden and unexpected. She was able to leave during peace, because at that time things were still quiet here. I think she had a kidney problem. Johanna had been there the Sunday before and she died the Sunday after. Gertrud’s husband also stayed in Stalingrad, will the Russians let them go? Her brother and her brother-in-law, Elsa’s husband, are back home. Diez is occupied by the French whereas the Americans are in Limburg and Steeden. In Deern the bridge across the Lahn River was also blown up, and near Limburg the big Autobahn bridge. A few trains are moving again here and there, but there is never a connection. Now I have covered many pages, I wonder if you can really understand all of this? I did it as well as I could, I have become an old woman now and you would not recognize me at first [if you saw me] in the street. I have become very skinny but I am healthy in body and spirit. Please let Willy and Hedwig also read this letter, I am sorry that Margie won’t be able to read it. I was very happy about Joän’s letter, thank all of you for it. The good Lord has treated our land with a heavy hand but we deserve it because National Socialism wanted to get along without him and killed all awe before him and his word in our youth. Now we must cleave to HIM so that he will help us through these hardships. You do the same. Many heartfelt greetings from all of us from your Mother.