Sunday 8th April 1945 – The day before the Fall. The 3rd Byelorussian Front is pressing in upon the city from the north and the south. The bombardment is relentless, the sky is dark and thick with smoke, the noise deafening. The second position has been smashed wide open and the third position has also been breached on the south, with the Red Army now on the south bank of the Pregel. The cathedral and Kneiphof Island are directly on the front line, and the southern suburbs and the Sudbahnhof has been taken. The city's defenders have tried a counter-attack to break out to Gross Holstein at the river mouth, but have failed and are now falling back towards the city centre. The third and final position follows the old city walls and gates, and although the northern suburbs have also fallen to the invaders the northern parts of the old city are holding out under merciless attack. The castle, the university, the shopping strip along The Steindamm, the parklands, the closely built streets, they're all burning, exploding. The 200 000 Königsbergers left in the city are huddled in their cellars and air raid shelters, beseiged, fearful and waiting while their defenders under General Lasch fight a loosing battle.
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Five and half years before, the fury of World War Two had erupted in September 1939 when German forces invaded Poland and Danzig. Six months earlier Memel had been re-annexed to Germany, and within weeks of the invasion of Poland, Danzig and West Prussia were also re-annexed. East Prussia was geographically re-united with Germany. At the same time the Soviet Union invaded and occupied eastern Poland and later Lithuania, and Königsberg became once again a frontier town, with the Soviet borders between 100 – 200 kilometres away to the north east. Two years later the invasion of the USSR began, and German forces drove north and eastwards into Lithuania and Byelorussia (Belarus), moving the frontier endlessly eastwards and away from the city. Königsberg became an important centre for distributing troops and supplies, and because of its distance from either front it remained safe from direct air attacks.
The mood began to change in early 1943 as victories began turning to defeats after the failure to capture Stalingrad and the retreat from North Africa. At about the same time a concentration camp was being established at Stutthof, at the western end of the Frisches Haff. The curtain was rising on the madness that was soon to descend.
In July 1944 the city celebrated the 400th anniversary of the Albertus University, one of the oldest in Germany and in Europe. The philosopher Kant, the physicist Bessel and many other of its professors with a world reputation were remembered, and a special postage stamp was issued to commemorate the anniversary. It was probably the last celebration held in the city of the city's heritage.
The war came directly and visciously eight weeks later over two terrible nights in August 1944. Waves of RAF bombers, with their British, Australian, New Zealander and Canadian crews, pounded the city over the night of Saturday 26th/Sunday 27th August, and again over Tuesday 29th/Wednesday 30th August, creating huge firestorms and bringing destruction to much of Königsberg's old city. The castle was severely damaged, as was the cathedral, and the medieval old town of narrow streets and picturesque timbered buildings and Hanse warehouses burnt for days. Some 4 500 Königsbergers perished in the raids.
As the townsfolk began to recover from the air raids, news of the Red Army's brief occupation of two East Prussian border districts hit the city in October 1944. The village of Nemmersdorf was occupied for several days, during which the civilian population was violently and deliberately tortured and then massacred. Foreign press were invited to view the massacres, and the Nazi propaganda authorities spread the news far and wide hoping to stiffen resistance to the invaders.
By Christmas 1944, however, refugees were pouring into the damaged city as the Red Army began its push into East Prussia. Soon they were nearing the gates of Insterberg, only 80 kilometres east of the city. Cannon fire could be heard, and Soviet planes were begining to strafe the city. New Years Day 1945 was bleak. The weather was bitterly cold, one of the coldest on record. Long convoys, or treks, of refugees began snaking out of Königsberg and other East Prussian towns, crossing the frozen Frisches Haff to Pillau and the seaward side of the Frisches Nehrung, where one of the largest seabourne evacuations of the war was underway. Other Königsbergers decided to stay, although in March many were evacuated into the countryside and the resort towns on the Samland coast, leaving the city in the hands of its defenders under the command of General Lasch. Hitler declared the city a fortress, never to be surrendered, while Gauleiter Koch (the chief Nazi functionary in East Prussia) berated the refugees as cowards and traitors before fleeing himself. Soviet planes straffed and bombed the treks, and the roads were soon lined with abandoned and destroyed household goods and the bodies of refugees. The ice on the Frisches Haff was frequently shattered by enemy fire, and unknown numbers of people drowned in the freezing waters. Refugee ships were under constant attack by Soviet submarines and ships, with over 7 000 people drowning in the sinking of one ship alone. During March the ice began to melt and the trek became even more hazardous. Unknown numbers of Königsbergers and East Prussians were already dieing on the treks, but the flight continued to grow.