«The End of the Civilized World»: Responses to the bombing of Germany 1945-1949

di Ruth Easingwood
in Memoria e Ricerca n.s. 39 (2012), p. 175

Personal testimonies constitute an unexplored dimension in the debate on bombing. As these testimonies were organized around a particular moment, or moments, they reflect the intense feeling aroused by the sight of such overwhelming devastation. The narratives recorded in the British Zone between 1945 and 1947 reinforce those communicated to me years later and serve to contextualize those memories by providing them with a chronological frame of reference. In this way British women are linked across time by the common experience of bearing witness to the bomb damage and the sense of awe this engendered in them. Key words: Germany, bombing, raids, II world war, memory, public opinion