Klaus
Watch, read, answer and think
You will watch the bombing of Hamburg during World War II. This will help you understand the life of Klaus Schneider.
You should read the text, answer the questions and reason with yourself.
Youtube: World Factorial
the story of klaus Schneider
High above the city of Hamburg, a bomber plane cut through the night sky. The young pilot taking part in Operation Gomorrah (the massive Allied bombing campaign against Hamburg in July 1943) looked down at the sea of lights below. He knew his target but not the people who lived there. When the signal came, he opened the doors and released the bombs. They fell silently at first, then whistled through the air until they hit the ground with thunder. From above, the city seemed to burn like a great fire.
Far below, fifteen-year-old Klaus Schneider was already running with his family to the basement of their house on Mönckebergstraße, one of Hamburg’s busiest shopping streets. The sirens screamed in his ears, and the ground shook beneath his feet. His little sister, Anna, cried and held his hand so tightly it hurt. The air smelled of smoke and dust, and he could hear the crash of houses collapsing nearby.
In the morning, Klaus walked through streets that no longer looked like his home. Buildings along the Alster were burning, and black smoke covered the sky. He passed a shop where he had once bought sweets with friends, but now it was only rubble. Sometimes he saw people searching for loved ones in the ruins. Other times he saw bodies covered with blankets.
At school, fewer and fewer children came each week. Some had been sent away to the countryside, others were missing. The teachers tried to continue lessons, but their voices sounded thin in the cold, broken classrooms.
Food was scarce too. His mother queued for hours in the cold for a little bread, some potatoes, or maybe a piece of meat. Sometimes she came home with only a few turnips or a small bag of flour. Klaus often went to bed hungry, listening to his stomach growl.
At night, he sat close to his father, listening secretly to a small radio. They knew it was dangerous, but they wanted to hear news from outside Germany.
Klaus wished for one thing only: that the bombs would stop and that life could go back to how it had been before the war.
