“It’s hard to put into words, it left a mark on our lives”
-Anita John, Dresden firebombing survivor
Anita John was twelve years old at the time of fire bombings. She lived with her family in Dresden-Johannstadt. Her family took shelter in a cellar with the other residents in the building. They did not evacuate the area and were caught unaware by the second attack. Fire was raging outside the steel cellar door. It was producing extremely high temperatures inside the cellar. Oxygen was quickly becoming scarce.
Anita and her family lay down on the floor together with the others. She covered her mouth with a damp bathrobe that helped her to breathe whilst smoke filled the cellar. At first they all survived the attacks, until the immense heat from the raging firestorm consumed all the oxygen inside the cellar. All, but one, died of smoke inhalation.
Sixteen hours later, a soldier looking through the ruins for his wife broke a small window accessible from the street. Oxygen came into the bunker. Only Anita woke up amongst the dead. Her parent’s bodies lay silent, close by on the floor. The soldier saw Anita’s body move and took her to the aid station. The water in the damp bathrobe had allowed just enough oxygen to keep Anita breathing.
The last memory Anita has of her parents is telling her father “I want to lie here”. Her mother responded, “Then let’s stay”. Anita grew up with her uncle.
Mrs. John was one of the few survivors I met who continued to live close to where she lived at the time of the bombings. I believed in some way it was a way for her to still be close to her parents. She is photographed in front of the destroyed Trinitatiskirche, where her parents were married and she was baptized.
On February 13th, 1945 the baroque city of Dresden, Germany was firebombed into cinder by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force. The attack was divided into three bombing raids dropping over 4,500 tons of high explosives, including incendiary bombs, onto the city known as “Florence on the Elbe.”
This portrait is a part of my From Above project which featured portraits of atomic bomb and firebombing survivors from WWII. My limited edition book is available at https://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=I1040&i=&i2=
Tags: Anita John, Dresden, Dresden firebombings February 13 1945, From Above, Trinitatiskirsche