Air raid on Celle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The only air raid on Celle by Allied bombers resulted in relatively little damage to property in the city of Celle during World War II . However, the events immediately after the air raid, which went down in history as the Celle massacre, resulted in the death of many concentration camp prisoners . Before the start of the war, the city had 37,799 inhabitants in May 1939.

Attack, victims and damage

As one of the last cities in the German Reich , Celle was attacked on April 8, 1945 at around 6 p.m. by 132 aircraft of the 9th US Air Fleet , which dropped 240 tons of explosive bombs on the freight yard and its surroundings. However, the historic old town and Celle Castle were not hit and remained completely unscathed. The train station and freight yard were badly damaged, and the gas works and nine craft workshops were completely destroyed. The railway bridges over Bahnhofstrasse and Wiesenstrasse collapsed. In the streets Altenhäusen, Neustadt, Kirchstrasse, Marienstrasse, Uferstrasse, Fuhsestrasse, Riemannstrasse and Bahnhofstrasse, houses were also hit by bombs.

The exact number of fatalities in the air raid on Celle could never be determined. In addition to 122 residents of Celle, a large number of concentration camp prisoners were killed because a train on the way from the Salzgitter-Drütte concentration camp to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was hit by the bomb on the Celle railway site and numerous prisoners were hit by an SS after the air attack. Kommando and were followed and killed by police officers.

A total of 67 houses in Celle were completely destroyed, 550 were damaged significantly and 614 were slightly damaged, with the greatest damage occurring in Marienstraße. The damage corresponds to a total degree of destruction of 2.2%. A total of 18,700 m³ of rubble was removed.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German Association of Cities: Statistical Yearbook of German Communities , p. 384. Braunschweig 1952.
  2. ↑ Lower Saxony City Book , Stuttgart 1952.
  3. ↑ Jürgen Ricklefs: History of the City of Celle , p. 110. Cologne 1959.
  4. ↑ German Association of Cities: Statistical Yearbook of German Communities , p. 385. Braunschweig 1952.
  5. ↑ German Association of Cities: Statistical Yearbook of German Communities , p. 377. Braunschweig 1952.