The odyssey that lay before people like the young Wolf Biermann and his mother defies imagination. In a conflagration so huge it was impossible to escape the fire – the distance to the edge was too great. The best anyone could hope for was to get to some open space that would act as an island in the terrible flaming sea – a park or playing fields where the fire could not properly take hold. In Hammerbrook people made for the Stoltenpark, or the banks of the many canals that criss-crossed the area. In Hamm, those who could made their way to the Hammer Park, and in Eilbek it was the Jakobipark, just north of Hasselbrook station. Even there the heat was so great that people were overcome. Without shelter from the storm of sparks their clothes and hair were still in danger of catching fire, and many sustained such bad burns as they escaped that they perished shortly after reaching relative safety. In the smaller parks and open spaces hundreds died because they could not get far enough away from the incredible heat. In one green about 120 metres square, more than a hundred people who had sought safety in the centre were burned to death. ²⁶

The following account is by a man who was in his mid-forties. When the exit from his cellar was blocked by rubble he was forced to break through into his brother-in-law’s pastry shop on the ground floor of the building. From that point on it became almost impossible to keep the family together as they ran through the burning streets in a desperate search for shelter:

There were only two places that might be safe; either the sports field on Grevenweg or the Ankelmannplatz in the opposite direction. The escape route to the sports field was shorter, but was more likely to be in the middle of a sea of fire. I personally, with my family, chose the somewhat longer route, racing along the middle of the street which was alight with flying sparks, in order to avoid some of the heat from the burning house façades.

Even on the short distance to the next corner, we saw the first people burning, desperately running figures, who suddenly fell, and as we approached, were already dead. We had reached the first crossroads. Here we saw a building whose roof had, exceptionally, only just caught fire. In the entrance to this building we took shelter for a few moments from the storm, the heat, the whipping whirl of sparks and the glowing mounds of phosphor. We were in desperate need of this break. Although we had only travelled a short distance, our lips were already badly swollen. Our throats were incredibly dry. Our legs felt weak…

All around people fled from burning buildings. Some came out with their clothes already alight, others caught fire outside, from the sparks, the blazing heat or the phosphor. Again and again we saw burning people suddenly start to run, and soon after, to fall.

After this terrible cries were to be heard, but they too grew rarer. I saw many burning people who ran and collapsed in silence. There were also people travelling in the opposite direction to us. Because of this we had only gone a few steps when I heard my sister call. We could not see her, because despite the bright fires close by, thick smoke and dust darkened everything. We followed my sister’s voice, calling [to her] ourselves, but received no answer. For a short while it became lighter. Around twenty metres in front of me, I saw my brother-in-law appear from the darkness of a building’s wall, and run into the middle of the street. I called to him. He turned to me. I saw from his badly swollen face that he had already suffered heavy burns. Whether or not he recognized me, I do not know. My brother-in-law suddenly turned away again and began to run. I then saw that all his clothes were burning brightly. He fell into a mass of three or four corpses which were already completely burned. When my wife and I reached there, our brother-in-law was already dead, burned. There was no way to save the people who were falling. He who fell over during his escape was lost…

My wife’s head began to burn. Her hair had caught fire. With a small amount of water that I had in a bucket with me I was able to put out her burning hair. At the same time I cooled my hands and face… My wife complained, ‘I can’t go on! My feet are burned! My hands!’… I also felt great pain in my right hand, caused by a severe burn. My left hand was beginning to hurt similarly as well. My head burned as if on fire, especially my face. I also noticed that my sight began to fade.

The stretch of road upon which we now travelled brought ever worsening scenes of horror. I saw many women with their children held in their arms running, burning and then falling and not getting back up. We passed masses of people made up of four or five corpses, each probably a family, visible only as a pile of burned substance no larger than a small child. Many men and women fell over suddenly without having caught fire. Around us were hundreds of people. Some of them ran, some moved slowly, with a peculiar shuffling walk. All this happened in silence. The terrible heat had dried throats so much that no one could scream. Silently and with the last of their force, women tried to save their children. They carried them pressed close. Many of these children were already dead, without their mothers knowing. ²⁷

A tornado, a whirl of sparks, the tops of trees bent to the street by the force of the burning wind – what these people were witnessing was the beginning of a unique phenomenon. The word Flammenmeer, ‘sea of flames’, comes up again and again in accounts of the firestorm. It is a literal description of what those people saw: a vast sea of fire in the grip of a hurricane. When a local priest saw what had overcome his neighbourhood in Eilbek he was reminded of the apocalyptic vision of St Matthew. ²⁸For most people, however, they were witnessing, quite simply, a picture of hell. The fires spread for miles in each direction and there was literally no end to the flames – their entire world had been transformed into a blazing inferno.

The city authorities struggled vainly to keep the fires under control, but from the outset they were fighting a losing battle. With most of the fire service still in the west of the city there were few teams to combat the flames. Those who did appear soon gave up trying to put out the fires and concentrated instead on rescuing people from burning buildings. In Rothenburgsort, for example, the fire-service leader ordered his men to create an umbrella of water for the fugitives to escape beneath, and in this way brought up to five thousand people to safety. ²⁹Such rescue attempts were still possible on the outer edges of the main firestorm area – but once the fire brigade ventured into Hammerbrook, Borgfelde and Hamm they were forced to abandon all hope of saving anyone. The head of one fire-fighting unit discovered that, not only was he unable to help the fugitives, he was lucky to escape with his own life:

In Hammer Weg there were people lying on the street. We climbed out of the car to rescue them. Then suddenly, along the Landstraße, there came a colossal sheet of flame, which I tried to escape by running ahead of it. The driver got away by turning the car down Horst-Wessel-Straße. The firestorm was a hurricane. No smoke on the streets, only flames and flying sparks as thick as a snowstorm… I ran until I was exhausted. ³⁰

Ludwig Faupel was another fireman who had rushed to Hamm only to find himself embroiled in the full force of the firestorm. After driving through a ‘roaring, boiling hell’, he and his crew were forced to abandon their vehicle in the middle of the road and take whatever shelter they could find. ³¹

Closely pressed against the ground behind a heap of stones, the heat was unbearable. Again and again I had to put out my smouldering clothes. I put my gas mask on for lack of air. Bits of fire, dust and ash flew all around. In the howling and crashing of the wind people were blown over, stumbled and lay there exhausted, doomed to die. Above it all the growling drone of hundreds of aircraft. Bombs exploding.