Hell of Heat

One October noon 418 years ago Martin Luther nailed his famed 95 theses to the church door of the little Saxon village of Wittenberg, started an explosion heard around the world. Since then very little has happened to Wittenberg, though the town grew to a city, developed a thriving chemical industry. One of the largest explosive factories in Germany is the West-faelische Anhaltinische Sprengstoff Fabrik, in the neighboring village of Reinsdorf.

One afternoon last week peasants miles away from Wittenberg heard a dull roar like distant thunder, followed by other roars which came closer & closer. A huge cloud of reeking yellow smoke mushroomed up from Reinsdorf. In less than a minute bells were ringing, sirens screaming all over the countryside. Truckloads of soldiers, storm troopers, police, and labor service units were mobilized to keep order. Private automobiles were commandeered to carry dead and wounded. It did not take the shattered windows, the bits of blackened debris dropping from the sky, to tell what had happened: the West-phalian Anhalt munitions works were blowing up.

For nearly seven hours the Sprengstoff continued to explode. Every explosion caused a new fire, every fire a new explosion. Telephone connections were cut off and iron-clad censorship clamped on all news dispatches. Secret police reached the scene almost as quickly as the ambulances, closeted foreign correspondents who attempted to gather first-hand news. The Associated Press did succeed in getting to the bewildered Burgomaster of Reinsdorf while the town still burned. His account:

"There are many scenes that rend my heart. . . . Many of those leaving the village are carrying with them as much of their belongings as they can carry despite the danger. It is a true hell of heat and explosions. I think an estimate of 2,000 killed is too many; 1,000 would be more accurate. ... I never want to go through this again.

"It is getting so thick with smoke I cannot breathe. Things look much worse. I must go now. HEIL HITLER!"

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