NS-dok

Calendar sheet of the family Pütz. (Jan-Niklas Holst)

This calendar documents the air attacks on Cologne in 1944. Each line represents an attack – on the 11th of April, for instance, Cologne was struck by six air raids. As a family calendar of the Pütz-family, this object represents the perception of the Second World War from the perspective of civilians who lived in the city. Instead of more common war-themed objects (photos of bombed-out houses, combat, front lines, or dead soldiers; not-detonated artillery shells, weapons, uniforms), the display of this object deviates from our expectations of what war looks like. Interestingly, the calendar further includes dates that relate to the Nazification of the time such as the day of the surrender of the Yugoslavian armed forces on April the 18th.

Mural in an air-raid-shelter by cologne firefighters. (Jan-NIklas Holst)

Mural in an air-raid-shelter by cologne firefighters; left side; right side. (Jan-Niklas Holst)

What you see here is a mural created in 1940 by Cologne firefighters in the air-raid shelter of their fire station. Clearly depicted in the background is Cologne – the outlines of the Cologne Cathedral are clearly visible. In the foreground, five firefighters rush from their vehicle towards two of their colleagues who are already receiving what a – british – man, sitting on a bomber is dropping: Not bombs, but 'Kölsch' (the local Cologne beer), 'Flönz' (a regional blood sausage-speciality) and radishes.

This mural invites various interpretations. A rather straightforward explanation would be that the firefighters downplayed the bombs because of the children, who, along with their families, regularly sought shelter from air attacks at that time, while also wanted the kids to remain vigilant and so still included the danger from above. Perhaps, however, the firefighters longed for the time before the war when bomb attacks were not yet commonplace. But why then draw the British at all? Perhaps they wanted to acknowledge the reality –periodical attacks from above – in general terms, while also trying to mitigate it to some extent – after all, they had to deal with it on a daily basis, so why additionally remind yourself and others of it in a place as often used as an air-raid-shelter?

Either way, this picture, integrated into the exhibition area 'Cologne in War' at the NS Documentation Center, is another example of representing wartime perception beyond the classical reception of the warfront. It's not soldiers and battles that stand in the focus, but rather civilian Cologne and how its inhabitants dealt with the local reality of war.