With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

A Wartime Bomb, Unearthed in Germany, Recalls Darker Days

Traffic on the Rhine halted, trams and cars could not cross a main highway bridge, and about 20,000 Cologne residents on either side of the river were forced to leave their homes and gather, for safety’s sake, in the gyms of schools closed for the day.

Seven decades after the end of World War II, the threat of aerial bombs still disrupts life in Germany with surprising regularity.

A bomb found along the riverbank during excavations for a pipeline forced the evacuation of everyone within about a half-mile radius. That included people in homes, businesses, a nursing home, a 45-story apartment building and a youth hostel.

Read entire article at NYT