The people of Hamburg experienced the worst of the horrors of war in the summer of 1943. After Allied bombing, the first firestorm in history raged through the Hanseatic city. Archive footage, some of it in color, documents the devastation of the city: from the first air raids to carpet bombing to the arrival of the Allies, who found a scene of destruction. Contemporary witnesses recall the nights of terror, life under occupation, and the reconstruction of the city.