Title: Hamburg
Genre: Historical Drama
Logline: “Hamburg” details the events leading to the first firestorm in history, the Hamburg firestorm in WWII.
Synopsis:
As the war escalates, SS general Hans Richter is assigned to Hamburg, a city that will soon become a target of Allied bombings. Amid the escalating chaos, he witnesses the devastation wrought by his own side, triggering a realization of the horrors of war. Stricken with guilt and a desire to prevent further suffering, Hans helps a woman named Elsa and a group of anti-Nazis get civilians out of the city amidst the chaos of the firestorm. He orders trains returning from the concentration camps to be filled with all civilians possible, including Jews, and then have them emptied in a remote field. After several remote trips Hans notices the aluminum chaff raining down on the city. The sound of a thosand bomber raid fills the sky as the last train is filled. Hans forces Elsa to take the last train and promises to join her her in the next one, telling her he needs to survive to save more people and won’t be careless with his life. Hans decides to wait for one more. It is destroyed by a P-51 Mustang. Hans decides to go to an air raid shelter, which is packed, very very packed with people. He makes it inside, and the door is sealed. The firestorm begins. The incendiaries create gflames so intense that the firestorm kills simply by suffocating the civilians first, and then incinerationating them. The storms suck up people, bikes, cars and trees. The next day, as they walk through the ruins of a city where the gutters are running with the molten fat of the dead, rescuers atemmpt to open Hans’ air shelter. When they do, the bodies are so hot they burst into flames. One of the first we see burst into flames is Hans.
