..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.
..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.
“It’s hard to put into words; it left a mark on our lives.”
-Anita John
Nora Lang (left) and Anita John (right) were close friends growing up. They lived down the street from each other in Dresden-Johannstadt. Nora was 13 1/2 and Anita was 12 years old when Dresden was destroyed during the infamous WWII air raid.
Nora was separated from her family during the chaos but luckily everyone survived. Anita’s family and neighbors took shelter in a cellar. Soldiers clearing debris on top of the collapsed cellar found Anita passed out sixteen hours after the raid. She lost her parents and was the only survivor in the cellar.
Mrs. Lang and Mrs. John are photographed in front of the damaged church, Trinitatiskirche. It is located a few streets from where they experienced the bombings. Mrs. Lang and Mrs. John were one of the few survivors I met who continued to live near to where they had lived at the time of the bombings. For Mrs. John, I believe in some respect it is a way for her to still be close to her parents.
..April 2016.. ..Dresden..
“I didn’t see anything. I didn’t cry a tear. Nothing at all.”
-Mrs. Margarethe Buhr
I received the sad news that Mrs. Margarethe Buhr passed away a couple of weeks ago. Mrs. Buhr was one of the Dresden fire bombing survivors I photographed during my first trip to Dresden. She was the oldest survivor I photographed from Dresden.
Her portrait became the photograph I used to present the Dresden survivors in the From Above exhibitions. The photo was used on the book jacket.
She was already partially blind when I photographed her portrait against a surviving baroque churches, but her eyes were the most telling eyes I have ever photographed. Her eyes seemed to pierce through the camera lens.
Her testimony about the surviving the destruction of Dresden was one of the most brutal I have heard. She was living in an area which was pummeled into ash. People boiled to death when they jumped into fountains thinking they could escape the raging fires.
I will always remember her saying that she was born in 1919 at the same time the German troops began to return home from WW I. The war ended months before but troops didn’t return home from the front until the spring of 1919.
Mrs. Buhr was 96 year old. I consider myself lucky to have spent time with Mrs. Buhr. She will be greatly missed. It was an honor to have known her.
The last time I saw Mrs. Buhr was at a gathering with other Dresden fire bombings survivors in Mrs. Lang’s home.
