Fridays For Future
February 20th, 2020Gunther Kannegießer
February 13th, 2020
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.”
Gunther Kannegießer was never able to recover the bodies of his mother, brother and sister after the bombing of Dresden. For many years he searched lists of mass burial sites for their bodies.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and Reunification more information became available about the location of mass graves and who was in them. Spending the majority of his life looking for the location of the bodies, he found their names on a document for a mass grave at the Johannisfriedhof Cemetery.
In the back of the cemetery, three stones waist high are erected at the mass grave without any markings or a list of names. After Reunification a small monument was sculpted stating, “Here lays 3,660 civilians who died on February 13th, 1945.” The majority of the bodies in this mass grave were from Dresden Johannstadt, where Mr Kannegießer’s family lived.
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=
A selection of From Above portraits taken in Dresden and also including portraits of firebombing survivors from Coventry and Rotterdam, will be exhibited in the Dresden Neustadt during May. More information will be released closer to the opening.
Nora Lang
February 11th, 2020
“My father said, “The war will have an awful end. If we are separated from each other, you have to leave the town! Because there will be a battle for the town.”
–Nora Lang
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.”
Nora Lang still lives close to where her original home was destroyed. From her living room window you can see the location of her old house. She is photographed next to a ruined church, Trinitatiskirche, one street from her home. Nora was 13 1/2 when Dresden was destroyed. Her family lived in Dresden-Johannstadt. They survived the first attack by taking shelter in their cellar. After the first attack they had to leave their burning home and experience hell as they were chased by the firestorm through burning streets. They tried to find shelter several times during the deadly second and third attack waves which lasted the entire night and didn’t succumb until the next morning.
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=
A
selection of From Above portraits taken in Dresden and also including portraits of firebombing
survivors from Coventry and Rotterdam, will be exhibited in the Dresden
Neustadt during May. More information will be released closer to the opening.
Lieselotte Jakob
February 9th, 2020
“It was the most saddening experience of my life.”
-Lieselotte Jakob
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.”
Lieselotte Jakob, 24, and her family survived the bombardment by sheltering in their cellar. A bomb detonated directly in their street and the explosion ripped through the neighborhood. The cellar housing Lieselotte and her family was the only one to contain survivors.
After fleeing the cellar, the family headed towards the hospital in the direction of the Elbe River. They attempted to get into another shelter but no one would open their doors to allow them to get safety from the bombs and fire so they walked towards City Hall.
The family walked along the river and saw corpses leaning against walls. Their lungs had collapsed. They arrived at the hospital to find it full of chaos and disorder. Lieselotte suffered from smoke inhalation. She couldn’t speak for 4 weeks.
After the bombings she lived with her grandparents in Dresden. One of her relatives was a solider assigned to cremating bodies in the town square.
Soon afterwards, Lieselotte made her way towards her parent’s farm, situated to the east of Dresden. The journey was long and arduous, but the area was lost to the Red Army, forcing Lieselotte to turn back towards the city. They walked back to Dresden by following in the tracks of other fleeing refugees. Along the way they were twice shot at by planes.
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…
A selection of From Above portraits, including portraits of firebombing survivors from Coventry and Rotterdam, will be exhibited in the Dresden Neustadt during May. Further information will be released closer to the opening.
Fragile
February 8th, 2020
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January 20th, 2020..December 2019.. ..New York..
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Masakatsu Obata
January 8th, 2020..January 2020.. ..Nagasaki..
I received the sad news that Mr. Masakatsu Obata passed away on December 12th, 2019, three days prior to his 102nd birthday. Mr. Obata was the first hibakusha, atomic bomb survivor, I ever met.
During our meeting I felt overwhelmed whilest he described his experiences on August 9th, 1945 and the days after. I had never heard such vivid descriptions of what had happened. Because it was my first conversation, I was overwhelmed. I don’t remember much and always have to look back at my notes when speaking about Mr. Obata’s testimony.
I’ve returned to Nagasaki many times since September 2008 but that was the only time we met.
When I took this portrait he was already 90 years old. I remember that he had as much energy as I did. We walked across to the park near the hypocenter and took the first portrait of what became the From Above project that has defined my career and who I am. From Above was published as a book and has so far been exhibited on three continents.
I’m grateful for Mr. Obata allowing me to begin my journey learning about the hibakusha and the horrors of nuclear war.
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