The bombing of Rotterdam by the German Air Force on 14 May 1940, four days after the invasion of the neutral Netherlands by the German Armed Forces, led to the surrender of the poorly equipped armed forces followed the next day. The exile, Herbert Fiedler, and the Dutchman, Henk Chabot, both immortalised the events of 1940 in an oil painting. Chabot, from Rotterdam, painted De brand van Rotterdam [The Fire of Rotterdam] in threatening, bright red colours from the perspective of the peaceful countryside, which should have been a refuge for survivors; in the foreground, images of buildings are lined up in blocks like in an exhibition.

Fiedler listened to, read and looked at photos of the destruction of the city and the people in his exile village of Laren. He, who had experienced the horrors of the First World War as a conscript, had been severely wounded on the Eastern Front in January 1916, captured the exodus of people from the bombers and infernal fire in dark expressive tones. He completed the painting on 6 September, 1940 as Refugees in Burning City in a relatively small format of 41 x 33cm. After the Second World War, Fiedler dealt with the Dutch nation and his own trauma as a German exile in several variations in the newly adopted gouache technique, and under various titles: Vluchtende mensen, Bombardement, Brandende stad, Fluchteling en.

Text: Ursula Langkau-Alex, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam