The wireless brought news the next day of plans to evacuate all civilians not directly aiding the war effort in Hamburg to Rügen. The second largest city in Germany had some time earlier been the target of an awful attack by the English and American bomber squadrons.
It was known under the name of Operation Gomorrha, and as far as Ursula – or anyone else for that matter – remembered, it was the most horrible and devastating attack ever flown against her country. Apart from killing more than forty thousand civilians and wounding thirty-seven thousand, the firestorm it created had destroyed most of the city.
One of her former inmates – Hilde Quedlin, may she rest in peace – had received a letter from her relatives in Hamburg with a graphic description of the horrible scenes. Because the su
