* Elberfeld is a district of Wuppertal.
Wuppertal, in the hilly Bergisches Land and the narrow valley of the River Wupper, became a major target for RAF incendiary bombing.
On 30 May 1943, around 600 bombers dropped approximately 300,000 incendiary bombs on Wuppertal.
Instructions for people made homeless by the air raid
The narrow streets, lined with half-timbered houses, burned fiercely as the firestorm swept through the confined Wupper valley.
Residents who could not reach safety in time were exposed to extreme heat; some bodies were reportedly burned and contracted to a fraction of their original size.
3,400 dead
For lack of other containers, charred human remains were collected in zinc bathtubs, wash tubs and large pots. It took weeks to recover the 3,400 dead, or their remains, from beneath the ruins.
About 80 per cent of the city was destroyed.
Just three months later, the neighbouring town of Remscheid in the Bergisches Land suffered a similar fate: 11,000 of its 14,000 houses were burned in incendiary attacks.
Wuppertal’s famous suspension railway was not spared either.
