Winckelmannstrasse

Lindenaustrasse, corner Winckelmannstrasse

  • 1942, April 19, Sunday – Interesting to me was the man’s complete cluelessness with respect to the miseries of the Jews. “It isn’t far for you to come. Professor, you take the tram from Wasaplatz to Georgsplatz . . . Oh, you are not allowed to take the tram?” — During the questioning: “First name?” — “Victor Israel.” — “By which name are you known?” — “Victor.” — “Fraulein, underline ‘Victor.’ ” What Neumark recently told the Neumanns is of a piece with this civil servant’s cluelessness. (He has a furnished room with the Neumanns in Winckelmannstrasse and regularly receives permission from the police to visit his family on the weekends. **p40
  • September 25, Friday toward evening – Yesterday at about nine a young blond lady appeared here in the kitchen. Whispered report. Daughter of Frau Arendt, the friend and neighbor of the Neumanns in Winckelmannstrasse, who had come to take leave of the Neumanns last Sunday armed with cake, who is storing some of their things, and to whom Eva, it had been agreed, should convey a number of further pieces today. **p149
  • 1944, October 8, Sunday morning –  I had to wait for Eva until five o’clock. She had carried two heavy bags from the Windes’ to “Gertrud Schmidt,” Winckelmannstrasse, deposited them there, and returned on foot. She had eaten lunch with Frau Winde on the cellar steps, she had seen the columns of smoke from the Windes’ roof. A dud bomb had fallen [ . . . ] nearby. Eva had heard the rumors on her way back. A worker said loudly that the Playhouse was “gone” and the Zwinger gallery damaged. … 
    Today Eva had to fetch her bags with sauerkraut and a present of fruit from Winckelmannstrasse; she left at ten, since the air-raid warning usually comes around midday and by then she should no longer be in the vicinity of the railway station. It is now almost a quarter to one, she is not yet back — she will have heard the radio “air situation,” and there was no alarm.  **p367
  • 1945, January 16, Tuesday, After eight in the evening – Hurrah, we’re still alive! Dresden had a heavy raid for the third time. The alert sounded at 11:30 a.m. I calmly went on reading […]. At twelve the siren sounded again, I thought for the all clear, but it howled a full-scale warning. Slowly down to the almost-empty cellar. Then others came: The radio reported formations approaching, 30 miles, 20 miles away. I stood at the cellar entrance with Werner Lang and Neumark. I guessed Eva to be at Maxe, the Berlin cafeteria in Walpurgisstrasse, or at Gertrud Schmidt’s in Winckelmannstrasse. We heard approaching aircraft, a series of detonations, single explosions, not the double bang of the guns. We went into the cellar. **p393
3 Winckelmannstrasse,
1910 Hotel Schweizerkeller
Image Credit: AltesDresden.de

Source: 

  • ** I Will Bear Witness, Volume 2: A Diary of the Nazi Years: 1942-1945, Victor Klemperer, Publisher ‏: ‎ Modern Library; Illustrated edition

Purchase on Amazon:

Get in touch:

Scroll to Top