Around fifty bombs fell on the Purit-Koolstoffabriek in Klazienaveen on March 23, 1945. The damage is enormous at that time, the factory is in rubble and the number of deaths is up to eight. A major event that took place exactly eighty years ago today.
The bombing came from the Allies at the time, but why they did it has always remained a mystery. “One report says that there was fuel in the factory and the other there were weapons of the Germans,” says Jans Jagt of Historisch Klazienaveen.
He continues: “The Allies wanted to advance to the north to free the area. That is why it seems that they wanted to bother the Germans with the bombing.”
That didn’t work out well, because eight employees of Purit died and the factory hall lay down. Jagt conjures up a claim report from after the bombing. “The glassware, the walls, the roof covering … there was just nothing left.”
Text continues after the video: