report
Status: 07/26/2022 1:02 p.m
Over the weekend, Odessa was again the target of a Russian rocket attack. Many people are faced with the difficult decision of whether they should leave their beloved home after all.
Ukraine is like a torn soul, like a torn heart. But that is still alive. And hopefully stays alive.
Karina Beigelzimer, teacher and freelance journalist, is sitting in a café on Odessa’s harbor promenade. A strong breeze is blowing, the café’s parasols are rattling in the wind.
She says she has a small suitcase at home that she simply packed on February 24, the day the war began: “But I can’t do it.” She often wonders whether she should go or stay: “These enemies who want to conquer our country should go – and not me!” She was born here 47 years ago, she has spent her life here, and she wants to stay here.
What should I pack in my suitcase? My friends, my hometown? I can’t pack that in my small suitcase – it doesn’t fit into it! I couldn’t make that decision.
But she doesn’t want to unpack her suitcase either: Who knows what’s to come. She loves her city – this combination of lightness and depth, which is also reflected in the people.
Uncertain future
Odessa is a vacation spot for many Ukrainians. A city that breathes joie de vivre. But the lightness is gone, says Karina. The cafes are full and people seem carefree. But that is deceptive: every third person in Odessa is now unemployed, she says. And the future is uncertain. The front is far away, but…
… still I don’t feel safe because we see these missile attacks almost every day. I don’t think anyone who is in Ukraine feels 100% safe. Russia stole our security. Like our life!
People sit by the water on the Odessa coast.
Image: AFP
Lessons are only online
Her life is no longer the same either. She can only teach online. No longer because of Corona, but for safety reasons: there is no air raid shelter in the school. But most of the approximately 1000 students are gone anyway, only about 300 stayed. One of them is 16-year-old Oleksandr:
I want to stay because Odessa is the best city in the world for me. My family is here, my friends are from Odessa. There’s no way I want to leave this town.
After the holidays he wants to start studying here in Odessa.
Destroyed apartment building in Odessa
Image: REUTERS
The two see each other again today on the beach promenade for the first time in months. Karina is happy that he is staying:
I’m glad it doesn’t make me feel so lonely. Although, to be honest, in the beginning I tried to convince him to go to Germany. But now I’m still very, very happy that he’s here!
Return to Germany
Oliver Schütz, on the other hand, has decided to leave. For seven years he lived here in Odessa with his Ukrainian wife and son – also a student of Karina. His son and daughter have been in Germany for a long time.
Of course they were worried about us too. They prefer it when we’re close again. So we’re going back to Germany. They call every day and say: Come quickly!
Schütz shows his car trailer to which he has strapped his household goods. The decision was difficult for him too. Odessa is a little paradise, he says. The beach is only 300 meters from his house.
He hopes to come back here soon. Because it is clear to him: “Leaving all of Odessa – that’s not possible. If you’ve been here for a long time – no, that’s not possible!”
Topic overview
war in Ukraine
stay or go people of Odessa
Marc Dugge, HR 2022-07-26 09:42 am