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The following story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Marushka (Maria) and Zygmunt Skarbek-Kruszewski and George (Jurek) Zygmunt Skarbek.

Easter came. The Resurrection Day, a day of peace and happy chiming bells, was a bad day for the people of Isny. The bells were ringing, but for a different reason - "The town is burning:" - the scream called the people to the streets.
Under cover of night, planes had come over Isny. People were sleeping, nobody had kept watch at the sirens. People were woken up suddenly by the noise of explosions. Rushing to the windows, they could see the so-called 'Lamps' (parachute fires) hanging above the town, the planes circling or diving low over the roofs. The planes, after dropping mainly incendiary bombs, disappeared back into the darkness. The bells began to ring the alarm, the sirens to wail and people rushed out to help fight the fires. The phosphorous was spreading from roofs and houses to the streets very quickly; there was no time to save all buildings. Three houses were already burning very brightly. Everyone was trying to help save goods and animals, rushing with hoses and buckets to keep the fires down. The best were the young Dutchmen. Not thinking about themselves, they were helping those most in need. They started the motor pump just in time as the fires started to spread to the neighbouring properties. The houses were usually adjoining each other in this old town. Nobody slept that night; everyone was watching lest all the town was consumed by spreading fires. The towers, also scorched, were still ringing their bells.

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