Photo Credit: Pavlo Kuchinsky, Polish Artist

Uncertain Times – Daily Kindness For Arriving Refugees

I had the pleasure to meet Maria Ossowski, a cultural correspondent in Berlin about 3 weeks ago via FaceBook. It was clear to Maria and her partner Walter Sucher to immediately get involved and help refugees from Ukraine with a special, warm ‘Welcome’ upon their arrival at Berlin Train Station, Germany.  Walter’s specialty sandwiches.

As women and children get off the train they are being guided to areas where they can expect to find clothing, diapers, hygiene items, pet carriers, food + drinks, etc., and where they have a chance to relax for a bit.

Maria and Walter thought about how to make the refugees feel ‘at home’ and ‘welcomed’ with some exquisitely crafted little sandwiches ( I say, for that, you have to get up at 4 AM in the morning to get everything done for the 6:30 AM train arrival from Ukraine). When I first heard about this, it reminded me so much of the project I had done back in 1996 at the Hamburg Train Station giving out homemade soup, sandwiches, and cakes to the homeless community for a year. I would like to thank Maria Ossowski and Walter Sucher for their tremendous kindness and actions.

Allow me to share a couple of days out of Maria and Walter’s life:

March 23rd

Today at the train station: three trains from the East arrived in Berlin at noon, all overcrowded. Some with a lot of luggage, many only with backpacks. Why? The wagons from Kharkiv are so crowded that people had to leave their suitcases there on the platform. The platforms, women told me, are full of abandoned suitcases. A friend reported that even paramedics on the train could not get through; an elderly man suffered a stroke. No one could help. In Berlin, long lines form before the issuance of train and bus tickets with destinations. I was just along these lines and experienced for the first time that some children are completely apathetic, no longer perceive anything. Then squat down, speak softly, gently open the little hands, put Haribo and tangerines. They hardly react. Sometimes a little. The mother’s thank, so tired, so exhausted. Today, many buses travel from Berlin to Trier. The distribution works well. But after four days of flight, another bus trip to Trier…anything better than being at the mercy of Putin’s bombs. Thanks to neighbor Bernadette, who baked, to Dorle Kasper, whose tangerines and Haribo was sold like hotcakes, and Walter Sucher with his tireless art of making sandwiches.

Maria Ossowski is with Walter Sucher at Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

March 2022 – Berlin, Germany –

Walter’s elaborate canapés. He has been whipping them up since 5:30 this morning, Monday. The lovely old lady from Dnjepopetrovsk sits completely absorbed in the arrival area for refugees at the train station and reads, looks up, smiles is happy about a canapé, and the gummy bears and sinks back into her reading. Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Montecristo. In Russian. The story of elaborate revenge. She is fascinated. We try a little conversation and finally agree in a speech-breaking way: may Putin’s entire gang of criminals fall prey to such retribution….

Lilly Botto -Writer -” House & Garden” Category