DÜSSELDORF 1943 | AFTER THE BOMBS | Rare Color Footage

Düsseldorf, summer 1943. These rare private colour films show a German city in ruins — filmed shortly after the bombs destroyed wide areas of the Metropolis. #wwii #history #WW2ColorFootage On the night of 11/12 June 1943, RAF Bomber Command attacked Düsseldorf in what became the city's most devastating raid. The bombing largely destroyed the historic centre and the surrounding districts. More than 600 people were killed. Because the attack fell on the night before the Whitsun weekend, Düsseldorfers remembered it ever after as the "Pfingstangriff" — the Whitsun Raid. Content: 00:00 A view across the shattered city 01:02 Recovering a body from the rubble 01:33 Prinz-Georg-Strasse with Rochus Church 02:46 Central Station and Old Post Office | Hauptbahnhof und Alte Post 03:14 Karlstrasse, view towards Worringer Platz, then known as Horst-Wessel-Platz 04:14 Sculpture "Sitzende", Malkastenpark 04:21 Destroyed building "Künstlerverein Malkasten" 04:52 St. John's Church, Martin-Luther-Platz 06:06 Court Building at Martin-Luther-Platz – over 80 death sentences during Nazi era What makes this footage exceptional is that it was shot privately, in colour, by an amateur filmmaker — not by a newsreel unit, not for propaganda, and not for any archive. The camera moves past collapsed façades, gutted apartment blocks, twisted steel and mountains of debris. Passers-by glance into the lens. Life carries on between the ruins. This film has been digitised in 2K and carefully restored. timetravelfootage takes you on a journey through time with precious private footage. We collect and restore films by amateur filmmakers from all over the world — history seen from a different perspective: private, unmediated, uncensored. timetravelfootage is an independent archive collection. If you are internste in our footage please contact: info@timetravelfootage.com This film is published for historical, educational and documentary purposes. It documents the consequences of war for the civilian population and is not intended to glorify war or any regime.