The Victims of the Dresden Bombing
W–047
Frieda Seibt was forty-three. After the February 1945 air raids, her body was brought to the Altmarkt, Dresden's central square, where the dead were registered and prepared for cremation. A tag attached to her body gave her name and address: Friedel Seibt, 12 Amalienstrasse.
1. Registration
Provenance and sources for frame 1
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314633_b. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject. The file retains the Deutsche Fotothek digital copy's orientation; the ABC reproduction is mirrored relative to it. An online caption's 13 February date refers to the first raid; the archive card dates the photograph to 25 February.
Between 13 and 15 February, British and American aircraft struck Dresden in four raids. Fire spread through its streets and much of the historic centre was destroyed. The dead were found in the streets and the cellars of houses.
2. Rows in the square
Provenance and sources for frame 2
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314620. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
3. A row across the square
Provenance and sources for frame 3
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314629. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
At first, bodies were taken to the cemeteries. By 24 February, some 7,500 had been brought there. City officials feared that the prepared burial grounds would not hold them all.
4. Carts beside the pyre
Provenance and sources for frame 4
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314623. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
5. A cart in the square
Provenance and sources for frame 5
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314624. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
6. Beside the carts
Provenance and sources for frame 6
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314625. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
The municipal emergency staff ordered the dead to be taken to the Altmarkt. There they were registered and cremated on grates made from railway rails.
7. Registration by the monument
Provenance and sources for frame 7
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314621. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
8. Beside the piled bodies
Provenance and sources for frame 8
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314628. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
When photographer Walter Hahn reached the square on 25 February, this work had already been under way for several days. The city archive holds twenty-three colour transparencies he made that day. Black-and-white photographs survive too: they show people, carts, rows of the dead and smoke above the pyres.
9. Records by the monument
Provenance and sources for frame 9
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314622. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject. The commission report's colour transparency F12 records the same moment but is mirrored relative to this digital copy.
10. Colour transparency F12
Provenance and sources for frame 10
File and rights
Colour transparency F12, Dresden City Archive, StAD 16.2.40, Hahn/Draber; the 1032 × 1020 embedded JPEG from the official report. This is another archival version of exposure 0314622. The report's orientation is preserved and is mirrored relative to the black-and-white file. No free licence is stated for the slide.
11. A stretcher
Provenance and sources for frame 11
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314616. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
12. Before cremation
Provenance and sources for frame 12
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314627. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject. The same exposure appears in a tighter Bundesarchiv copy, Bild 183-08778-0001, with a credit strip. The Wikimedia Commons page for that copy lists a CC BY-SA 3.0 DE licence.
Frieda's tag can be read in one of Hahn's colour transparencies. The historical commission matched the words to the police record of Frieda Hulda Seibt, which named suffocation as the cause of death. The photograph bearing her identification tag is not included here.
13. Bodies on the grate
Provenance and sources for frame 13
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314611. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
14. Another close view
Provenance and sources for frame 14
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314612. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
15. On the rail grate
Provenance and sources for frame 15
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314613. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
16. On the rail grate
Provenance and sources for frame 16
File and rights
Deutsche Fotothek reproduction df_hauptkatalog_0314821, from object 1990.B.2. Its separate archive card dates the exposure to 25 February 1945 and refers to 314613. This is a different view; the dead have not been identified. No free licence has been established for the file.
The remains of 6,865 people were cremated at the Altmarkt. Dresden's historical commission concluded that up to 25,000 people died in the raids of 13-15 February. Its research did not support the far greater figures repeated for decades.
17. Preparing the pyre
Provenance and sources for frame 17
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314614. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
18. The grate in close view
Provenance and sources for frame 18
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314615. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
19. Rows beside the pyre
Provenance and sources for frame 19
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314630. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
From 6 March, bodies recovered in the city were once again taken to the cemeteries. A lorry carried the ashes from the Altmarkt to Heidefriedhof in several journeys. Frieda Seibt's burial record bore the words 'ashes from the Altmarkt'.
20. Beside the pyre
Provenance and sources for frame 20
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314619. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
21. Across the square
Provenance and sources for frame 21
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314617. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
22. The pyre by the monument
Provenance and sources for frame 22
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314618. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
23. Cremation
Provenance and sources for frame 23
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314608. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
24. Rails and smoke
Provenance and sources for frame 24
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314609. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
25. The same pyre
Provenance and sources for frame 25
File and rights
Public Deutsche Fotothek file df_hauptkatalog_0314610. The group archive card 314608–25, 27–30, 33 dates the photographs to 25 February 1945. The located Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records are marked In Copyright; no free licence has been established for this file. The negative sequence is unknown, so these images are grouped by subject.
On 9 April, her father-in-law, Hermann Seibt, received written confirmation of her death.