Victims ombudsman in conversation: "Suffering has no ranking"

Mr Placzek, you have been a voluntary victim commissioner for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate since 2018.

What exactly is your job?

I prepare the care of victims during and after major disasters, i.e. terrorist attacks, accidents and natural disasters.

Of course, this conceptual work finds its limits somewhere, I was aware of that.

Unfortunately, we are now faced with such a situation.

What were you not prepared for?

The number of dead and injured, and I mean only the physically injured.

The mental damage has not yet been recorded.

The misery is just beyond my imagination.

Due to the scale, the situation will last even longer compared to other disasters.

We just weren't prepared for that.

How did you experience the first hours of the flood disaster?

The call came in the morning hours.

Classically, the victim ombudsman only comes into action when the victims come to rest, when they realize what has happened.

This is usually the case when the first aid has been completed, i.e. after a few hours or a few days.

Here we have a completely different situation.

Even more than a week later, this phase is not over, it is still about human lives.

This is a new experience for me.

What was the first thing you did when you heard about the flood?

Although I was initially not aware of the extent to which it is today, it was still clear: Those affected quickly need psychosocial care.

Physical care is automatic, but the psyche is often neglected.

That's why we started a hotline with the Center for Trauma and Conflict Management.

There, the victims have been receiving acute care over the phone since the morning after the flood.

In the beginning there were around 50 calls a day, now we've got 100. The calls last up to an hour and a half.

In addition, there has been a second hotline since Monday.

Here the victims are given psychological advice and are given a place in therapy.

The need for psychotherapists must be great.

Where does the help come from?

The Chamber of Psychotherapists contacted us directly and made all members from Rhineland-Palatinate available.

They take in the victims preferentially and hang on for an hour or two after work.

The state's school psychological service also takes care of groups.

For example, we have inquiries from daycare centers with traumatized children.

We have also

received

offers from other psychologists

via the

help platform fluthilfe.rlp.de

.

There are all kinds of offers of help on the platform.

The willingness to help is enormous, and we wanted to structure and collect these offers.

It is a search-and-find platform: helpers can advertise their offers, those affected can advertise their searches.

This ranges from personal help and everyday needs to equipment, accommodation and transport.

After seven hours we had more than 300 ads.

What worries those affected the most?

There is no general answer to that.

The many missing people are bad.

This means uncertainty for the relatives.

The number of missing persons is decreasing, but the chances of being able to save them decrease with each passing day.

Others, on the other hand, are emotionally attached to their pet or are very worried about their financial situation.

Everyone has their own destiny.

That is what makes coping so difficult.

Different problems need different answers.

And everyone is equally important in this situation.

Nobody is allowed to say: "But that's not so bad now."

Is there anything that particularly affects you personally?

Here, too, I believe that suffering cannot be ranked.

But I was in an emergency shelter on site, and the people there were mostly of an older age.

There was a woman who was over 90 years old.

That hit me a lot, something like that just doesn't leave you indifferent.

She then asked me for a pain pill and I got it for her.

How will your work continue after this first acute help?

In a later phase, I will take on a pilot function.

I make sure that the victims can cope with their fate, also financially.

I support them with insurance benefits, with the disbursement of emergency aid and so on.

I am, so to speak, a central point of contact who passes on bundled information.

How can victims overcome this trauma in the long run?

It is my job to work with the victims to find a form of remembrance.

We don't want them to stagnate in this victim role.

But neither should you pretend that this flood never happened.

We will plan memorial events and organize exchange meetings.

We did that after the rampage in Trier or after the flight conference accident in Ramstein.

The victims meet regularly to this day.

But at such a scale as here it is not easy because there are so many people affected.

I want to face this task.

This last phase of commemoration is particularly important.

Because it has no end.

Can it ever be like it was before the flood?

There are people who deal with blows of fate more quickly, others burden them for a lifetime. Stronger and weaker can support each other. That is why an exchange like the one in Trier is important. The victims feel that they are not alone. With this flood, the commemoration will be very pronounced due to the regional structures. It does not affect individuals, but entire villages. Everyone knows what everyone has been through. That will be helpful for coping. Reconstruction doesn't stop with rubble and infrastructure, it's also about village life and clubs. The victims work together for a future. And that gives strength.