April 24, 1945. On April 24th it was reported that Berchtesgaden had experienced an air raid in the middle of the day. We were horrified. This beautiful little town in the Upper Bavarian mountains, which held so many memories for us, had been destroyed by bombs. Now our uncle1 had nothing left either, we were sure of that, because a hail of bombs like the one we had experienced must have completely devastated the idyllic market town.
It was only much later that we learned that the attack had only targeted the houses of the Nazi bigwigs and some SS barracks on the Obersalzberg2. On a beautiful spring day – the snow still lay almost down to the valley – the residents of Obersalzberg were taken completely by surprise at around 10 a.m. The usual fog covering the area had not taken place in time. The planes with their deadly cargo appeared suddenly behind the Hoher Göll3 and covered the entire area with a carpet of bombs in just a few minutes, so that hardly a tree remained standing and some farmhouses in Oberau were also destroyed.
It was probably the last revenge that the Americans took on Hitler personally, although his house, the former Wachenfeld, was only partially destroyed in the attack. Hitler had refused to be flown out to Berchtesgaden at the last minute and committed suicide on April 30th in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
The older Berchtesgaden residents are still grateful to the kindness of fate that their hometown was not declared a fortress at the last minute, as planned, which would certainly have caused irreparable damage to this wonderful piece of land.
In 1951, the remains of the “Führer hauses” were blown up on the orders of the Bavarian state government. In the meantime, millions of foreigners, including many Americans, have visited the ruins of the former recreational facility of Hitler and his followers, and many would certainly have preferred to find the complex largely intact.
- Uncle Walter was stationed in Berchtesgaden during the war.
↩︎ - I was told, but I have not been able to verify, that Berchtesgaden itself, which is located in the valley below Obsersalzberg, had fog-making machines that were able to hide the town under a blanket of fog.
↩︎ - Hoher Göll is where the Purtschellerhaus is located. ↩︎