When Christoph Schaefer from Upper Palatinate receives the arrival report, his parents don’t want to let him go. He arrives in Munich as one of the first passengers to be flown out of Israel on special aircraft. He is immediately surrounded by cameras and microphones. Finally, after two canceled flights, it worked, says Schaefer, who was on vacation in Israel. “I’m so happy to be back on Bavarian soil,” says the young soldier. The Iron Domethe Israeli missile defense system, impressed him; it prevented worse things from happening.
On Thursday evening, hundreds of Germans who were evacuated from Israel after attacks by the radical Islamic group Hamas landed at Munich Airport. Lufthansa organized the flights on behalf of the German Foreign Ministry and took people to Frankfurt and Munich.
The couple from Gütersloh are waiting for their 18-year-old daughter Amelie.
(Photo: Johannes Simon/Johannes Simon)
The tension and then the relief was literally written on many people’s faces. This also applies to Amelie’s parents. Iris and Alex – they didn’t want to see their last names in the newspaper – had driven from Gütersloh to Munich and had terrible days behind them. Her 18-year-old daughter left for Tel Aviv just four weeks ago for a voluntary year with the Atonement Peace Services Campaign. They were able to maintain contact via Zoom, which was interrupted again and again when an alarm came and the daughter had to run downstairs to the shelter. “I read the SZ every day, but the last few days I couldn’t, I couldn’t stand the news,” says the mother. The parents spent hours on the hotline trying to get their daughter and other members of their atonement group to return home.
Alex Hanicke with his little son.
(Photo: Johannes Simon/Johannes Simon)
Franziska and Alex Hanicke from Dresden were in the south of the country with their two small children, 3 and 5. “At first we didn’t notice anything,” says Franziska Hanicke. They have friends there, she knows the country well and lived there for a year. “It was surreal.” Now they are happy to be back in Germany.
Mie Volke is a bit angry about the organization of the flights.
(Photo: Johannes Simon/Johannes Simon)
Germans who had registered on the Federal Foreign Office’s crisis information precautionary list were able to register for the flights. But things didn’t always go smoothly.
“I’m doing well so far,” says Mie Volke from Berlin upon arrival in Munich. However, she is a little angry that “it was such a big problem to get a plane.” She was afraid in Tel Aviv, but “also afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get out of there.” The fights, “you saw them, heard them and smelled them.”