As of: February 21, 2024, 11:18 a.m
By: Kathrin Böhmer
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The church is still standing, but houses around it were completely destroyed.
© City Archives
Thursday marks the 80th anniversary of the air raid on Olching in World War II.
22 people lost their lives at that time.
Olching - At 12:50 p.m., the time the bombs fell, the city remembers the terrible scenes from back then with a minute's silence at Nöscherplatz.
It was in the midday hours of February 22, 1944, when the war broke out on Olching in all its brutality.
Air raid alert.
The city's approximately 5,500 residents were used to the sirens, which wailed at all times of the day and night.
The fatal thing: “The residents assumed that Olching was not a worthwhile target for an air raid that day either,” explains city archivist Angelika Steer.
And this assessment was probably not so wrong.
Because actually, important infrastructure was supposed to be destroyed on this February day.
The youngest victim was two years old
But there would have been very little time to get to safety in time anyway.
There were only a few minutes between the alarm and the impact of the deadly cargo.
27 enemy planes were in the air, coming from the northwest.
They dropped 300 explosive and incendiary bombs.
It was probably an emergency discharge.
The original plan was apparently to destroy the nearby Munich-Augsburg railway line.
Bomb crater in the monastery garden.
© City Archives
This is supported by the fact that the majority of the bombs landed in the Hölzl factory - i.e. in the Amperauen.
A third reached the place.
The consequences were nevertheless devastating: 22 people lost their lives.
These included three men, ten women and seven children, the youngest just two years old, as well as the two forced laborers Vasil Pasta and Michalina Zisbowska, who left behind a 14-year-old son.
16 people were seriously injured and almost 40 others were slightly injured.
Eleven buildings were totally destroyed, twelve were seriously damaged and 35 were slightly damaged.
Around 140 people were without a roof over their heads.
The parish church had a long crack in the apse.
The city was in shock.
Pastor Georg Handwerker (1902 - 1975) was one of the first helpers on site.
“As we pastors set out to assist the injured, the dying and the dead, a woman ran past us who had not even noticed that a bomb fragment had shaved off a finger on her right hand,” he reported.
The quote can be found in the city chronicle by Tobias Weger and Werner Dreher, which is up to date.
Temporary emergency camp
It is also reported here that the Red Cross set up a makeshift emergency camp for the injured in the girls' school.
Seven helpers were Olching's doctor Dr.
Assigned to Korbinian Rothwinkler.
Among them was the later honorary citizen Käthe Zeitler, who was giving a lecture in Germering at the time of the attack.
One of the helpers was among those killed.
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Image of the destruction in the middle of Olching: The Stieren department store (today Jeans House, left) and the Gasthof Streller (today Dorfstub'n, which is now closed).
© City Archives
The rescue teams began their work within a very short time.
The Olching and Fürstenfeldbruck fire departments and their supporters extinguished the blazing flames.
Telephone network was dead
The telephone network was dead. Nevertheless, the seriously injured were able to be taken to the clinic in Fürstenfeldbruck.
27 children were accommodated in the badly hit monastery building as part of the Kinderland deportation.
They had a huge guardian angel.
Only one girl was slightly injured.
Peace was far from coming.
In the days that followed, the siren wailed again and again.
Heavy fighting took place in the air around the city.
According to the city archives, the local NSDAP staged a funeral service that attracted media attention.
On February 27th, around 3,000 people from Olching buried their dead.
It was also bad for the men who returned from the front and no longer had a home or relatives.
The terrible chapter in the city's history should not be forgotten.
Therefore, a wreath-laying ceremony and a minute's silence will take place on Thursday, February 22nd at 12:50 p.m.
All Olchingers are invited.
The city's chronicle
can be purchased in the town hall for 49 euros.
You can find even more current news from the Fürstenfeldbruck district at Merkur.de/Fürstenfeldbruck.