air strikes with more or less serious damage until the
end of 1944, on 16 January 1945 the city of Magdeburg
experienced the absolute inferno.
large-scale attack the Air Marshal Harris (he was called
"butcher" by his staff) earned this by-name.
About 4,000 people
burned or suffocated from lack of oxygen or were
poisoned by fumes in this attack alone. Many were
shredded by shrapnel.
The bunker under the
St. Jacobi Church which had to be closed at the time of
the bombing, could be approached no longer after the
attack due to the corpses towering outside the gates.
These were the people wo wanted to get to safety.
The inner city of
Magdeburg was annihilated almost completely, even the
venerable cathedral with the tomb of Otto I and his wife,
and the Monastery of Our Lady suffered severe damage.
Compared to other
cities, the degree of destruction of buildings was
extremely high. Practically the entire old city was
almost completely wiped out.
A total of 6,500
died in Magdeburg in the air war.