Survivors of hotel collapse back in Kröv: “Mentally it’s not that easy”

By Birgit Reichert

Kröv – A good five months after that Hotel collapse in Kröv several victims return to the Moselle town for the first time.

Firefighter Christoph Reuter (M), here with Mark Visser (l.), Edi Hoefnagel-Visser and son Jamie, was involved in rescuing the family who were buried in the collapse of a hotel on the Moselle in August 2024. © Harald Tittel/dpa

Among them is the Dutch woman Edi Hoefnagel-Visser, who had to endure hours under the collapsed rubble with her two-year-old son and her husband.

When she arrived in Kröv, it was difficult, the 23-year-old told the German Press Agency.

They cried too. “It’s not that easy for me mentally.” They doubted for a long time whether she should go to Kröv.

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But when she met and hugged her rescuer Christoph Reuter from the Trier fire department, it was a great moment. “He’s such a teddy bear,” Hoefnagel-Visser said of him.

While mother and child were uninjured in the accident on August 6, 2024, Hoefnagel-Visser’s husband suffered serious injuries. In Kröv, crutches are still used as a result of nerve damage. “He can’t feel his feet yet,” his mother said.

Erika Sorm (r.), who was buried and rescued at the time, sits with her dog Queenie next to helpers at the Kröv community's New Year's reception. — Erika Sorm (r.), who was buried and rescued at the time, sits with her dog Queenie next to helpers at the Kröv community’s New Year’s reception. © Harald Tittel/dpa

The reason for the meeting is the community’s New Year’s reception, to which those affected and rescue workers were invited.

“It was important to us as a local community to have closure and to thank the rescue workers again,” says local mayor Desire Beth. But it is also clear that there is still no closure for those affected.

An entire floor of the hotel collapsed late that evening. Two people died: a 64-year-old woman and the 59-year-old hotel operator.

Seven other people were trapped in the rubble for hours.

Around 250 emergency services took part in the 24-hour rescue operation. The cause of the collapse is still unclear.