Editing Hamburg (section)

===Second World War===
[[File:Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. CL3400.jpg|thumb|Hamburg [[Eilbek]] after the [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|1943 bombing]]; today around 25% of Hamburg's buildings are from before the Second World War<ref>{{cite web |url=https://zensus2011.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Publikationen/Aufsaetze_Archiv/2015_12_NI_GWZ_endgueltig.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4 |title=Zensus 2011: Gebäude- und Wohnungsbestand in Deutschland |language=de |publisher=Statistische Ämter Des Bundes Und Der Länder |date=2015 |access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref>]]

Hamburg was a {{lang|de|[[Gau (territory)|Gau]]}} within the [[administrative division of Nazi Germany]] from 1934 until 1945. During the [[Second World War]], the [[bombing of Hamburg in World War II|Allied bombing of Hamburg]] devastated much of the city and the harbour. On 23 July 1943, the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) and [[United States Army Air Force]] firebombing created a [[firestorm]] which spread from the {{lang|de|Hauptbahnhof}} (main railway station) and quickly moved south-east, completely destroying entire boroughs such as [[Hammerbrook]], [[Billbrook]] and [[Hamm, Hamburg|Hamm South]]. Thousands of people perished in these densely populated working class boroughs. The raids, codenamed [[Operation Gomorrah]] by the RAF, killed at least 42,600 civilians; the precise number is not known.{{cn |date=December 2024}} About one million civilians were evacuated in the aftermath of the raids. While some of the boroughs destroyed were rebuilt as residential districts after the war, others such as Hammerbrook were entirely developed into office, retail and limited residential or industrial districts.

The [[Hamburg Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery]] is in the greater [[Ohlsdorf Cemetery]] in the north of Hamburg.

At least 42,900 people are thought to have perished<ref name="kz-neuengamme">{{cite web|url=http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de |title=Gedenkstätte Konzentrationslager Neuengamme |publisher=Kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de |access-date=14 September 2013}}</ref> in the [[Neuengamme concentration camp]] (about {{convert|25|km|0|abbr=on|disp=comma}} outside the city in the marshlands), mostly from epidemics and in the [[SS Cap Arcona (1927)|destruction of Kriegsmarine vessels]] housing evacuees at the end of the war.

Systematic [[Deportation#Deportation during World War II|deportations of Jewish Germans and Gentile Germans of Jewish descent]] started on 18 October 1941. These were all directed to [[ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe]] or to [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]]. Most deported persons perished in [[the Holocaust]]. By the end of 1942, the ''Jüdischer Religionsverband in Hamburg'' was dissolved as an independent legal entity and its remaining assets and staff were assumed by the [[Reich Association of Jews in Germany]] (District Northwest). On 10 June 1943, the [[Reich Security Main Office]] dissolved the association by a decree.<ref>Cf. 'Schreiben der Geheimen Staatspolizei – Staatspolizeileitstelle Hamburg – an den Oberfinanzpräsidenten, Vermögensverwaltungsstelle vom 1. Juni 1943', Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Bestand Oberfinanzpräsident, Arb. Sign. 31/1 A, here after: ''Vierhundert Jahre Juden in Hamburg: eine Ausstellung des Museums für Hamburgische Geschichte vom 8. November 1991 bis 29. März 1992'', Ulrich Bauche (ed.), Hamburg: Dölling und Galitz, 1991, (Die Geschichte der Juden in Hamburg; vol. 1), p. 492, {{ISBN|3-926174-31-5}}</ref> The few remaining employees not somewhat protected by a [[Anti-miscegenation laws#Nazi Germany|mixed marriage]] were deported from Hamburg on 23 June to [[Theresienstadt]], where most of them perished. About 7800 Hamburg Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, of the nearly 17 thousand who had lived in the city before [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power|Hitler's rise to power]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hamburg |url=https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206350.pdf |website=Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies}}</ref>