Horror, Hamburg and September 11

September 11, 2002

Today is the first anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, a day that reminds me of the bombing of Hamburg in 1943. Horror runs intermittently through history, and for those experiencing it, it shocks. The following quotes tells of the bombing of Hamburg.

For weeks eyewitnesses were unable to report without succumbing to their nerves and weeping hysterically. They would try to speak then would break down and cry: "I can't stand seeing it again; I can't stand it.

I saw people killed by falling bricks and heard the screams of others dying in the fire. I dragged my best friend from a burning building and she died in my arms. I saw others who went stark mad. The shock to my nerves and to the soul, one can never erase.

These are quotes taken Air War and Emotional Stress, a book associated with the Rand Corporation, published by McGraw Hill in 1951, p. 107.