Archive for the ‘Dresden’ Category
Fragile
Thursday, March 30th, 2017Hansa Str. 3, Dresden
Saturday, March 18th, 2017..March 2017.. ..Dresden..
..The backdoor of Hansa Straße 3 led to a railway platform which was used to transport Jewish and Roma families, political opponents and POW’s to and from Dresden. As WWII progressed more forced labor was needed to maintain the war industry. Some of that labor arrived at this platform which was secluded from public view because it was a part of the Alte Leipizger Bahnhof, an industrial railway complex.
The deportations which took place two streets away at the Neustadt Bahnhof are well documented. But there is little documentation of the deportations and arrivals of people from this railway junction because the area was controlled by the military and wasn’t visible from the street. People entered on the street through Hansa Str. 3 and a back door opened steps away from a waiting freight car on the industrial tracks.
Today this area is populated by a trailer park community of artists. It’s still secluded from street and there are no markings of what happened here. I learned about it from an elderly man who had heard about what happened from others who lived through the war. He was able to find the little documentation available to confirm the stories.
This industrial railway area was not hit during the bombing of Dresden although it was only a 10 minute walk from the surrounding areas which were totally devastated by the attack. This area was one of the only not to be scorched.
The adjacent Alte Leipizger Bahnhof functioned during the GDR times (East Germany) for industrial use but was closed after reunification. It now stands in ruins after 25 years of neglect. Ironically it now resembles what a war scared building might look like even though it escaped WWII without being hit.
From Above, Kleines Haus Theatre, Dresden
Monday, March 6th, 2017..February 2017.. ..Dresden..
Dresden firebombing survivors Nora Lang and Anita John in front of their portrait at the From Above exhibition in the Kleines Haus Theatre.
Mrs. Lang and Mrs. John grew up on the same street and have been friends from childhood. Both escaped death during the Dresden firebombings on February 13th, 1945.
From Above was shown as a part of the commemoration program in Dresden. The exhibition featured portraits of firebombing survivors from Dresden, Coventry (UK), Tokyo, Wielun (Poland) and Rotterdam (Netherlands). It was an honor once again to bring the exhibition back to Dresden.
Stolpersteine for Emil Hochberg
Monday, February 27th, 2017Stolpersteine for Emil Hochberg
..February 2017.. ..Laubegast, Dresden..
Was walking along the Elbe retracing the long journeys that Victor Klemperer’s wife made from Dresden to Pirna because they wore the Jewish star and were not allowed to ride the tram or train.
The walk along the Elbe through Laubegast towards Pillnitz is my favorite. I can’t find the words to describe how the light and sound that comes off the river affect me.
I was walking with my head down and out of the corner of my eye caught the dull grey color of a Stolpersteine (stumbling stone) which I had never seen before. I have walked along the Kleinzschachwitz Ufer many times but never saw this Stolpersteine. A Stolpersteine is a small metal plate laid into the ground of the former residencies where Jewish families lived before they were deported. You have to be looking on the ground to find them because they blend into the ground.
This Stolpersteine was of a man name Emil Hochberg who was born in 1874, deported in 1943 and died in Auschwitz on August 28th, 1943. Most of the families living in Dresden had already been deported by 1943. When I researched I found that he had a non-Jewish wife, which might have spared the family a little bit more time since it was considered a mixed marriage. His wife survived the camps but there is no published information about her after the war.
There are around 20 Stolpersteine in Laubegast but this was the first I stumbled upon.
Fragile
Sunday, February 19th, 2017
Dresden
Monday, February 13th, 2017..Dresden..
“In the middle of the night my mother came into the bedroom and shook me in a way like never before. Our suitcases were already packed and we frantically ran down to the cellar. A neighbor heard on the radio that a large formation of bombers was on its way. My mother was shaking because the air raid sirens sounded a full alarm. It was like having cold bucket of water poured down my body.” -Katarina Brünnel
The banks of the Elbe with Dresden in the background. On the night of February 13th, 1945 the baroque city of Dresden was pummeled by three waves of Allied firebombings.
The city burnt to ash for weeks. Dresden, once known as “Florence on the Elbe”, sat as a pile of debris for many years and is still being rebuilt.
Dresden
Thursday, February 2nd, 2017
Rudolf Eichner
Thursday, November 24th, 2016..November 2016.. ..Dresden..
I recently found out that Mr. Rudolf Eichner passed away. He was one of the first fire bombing survivors I photographed in Dresden.
Mr. Eichner was photographed holding a chess piece that was given to him by his father while he was staying at the hospital. His father regularly visited him to play chess.
The hospital was destroyed by the second wave of bombers on February 13th, 1945. The injured struggled to scramble out of the hospital. Rudolf and a few others sought refuge in a nearby garden where they were cornered by the growing firestorm.
Every year on the anniversary of the bombings Rudolf returned to the spot where he had fought the inferno. Three years later, February 13th, 1948, he found a chess piece, a black knight, from the chess set destroyed by the flames.
Mr. Eichner was a proud man who rigorously fought during the DDR times and after unification for recognition of those who perished in the destruction of Dresden.
Dresden, DDR
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016..October 2016.. ..Dresden..
One of the few remaining sculptures made in the DDR times. Most of the signs of the DDR are found on the quiet back streets of Johannstadt, away from the city center where the tourists flock to see the baroque heart of Dresden.
Dresden, DDR
Saturday, October 15th, 2016..October 2016.. ..Dresden..
It’s abandoned…
It’s forgotten…
Sculpture made in the East German times sit lonely on the outskirts of the Dresden Neumarkt.
