A US conductor’s last dispatch from Lviv

The conductor Thedore Kuchar has reached the relative safety of Krakow in Poland. He tells us:

These past 18 hours, until the past several days, could only have come out of a 1940 film. I don’t want to spend too much time now as the ordeal is only partially finished. I have seen literally tens of thousands of people walking on highways with screaming children, dogs and cats in cages, boxes and suitcases.

I have crossed the border and can elaborate later but what I have seen must be reminiscent of WWII. What I have heard and seen gives me a clearer picture of where this is headed. I am among tens of thousands and must find my own way to Krakow. NO, there are no buses or Uber. Even friends who are offering to come from Prague or Warsaw suddenly say there is little chance of buying gas for the car. I am the lucky one to have such a problem (a chorister from Vienna who works in IT has found someone who is on their way; I am thinking of those who don’t have the resources to even seek transport once in the EU.