The shock of the attack on the Christmas market in the central German city of Magdeburg continues to reverberate. Six people were killed and more than 200 injured when a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia with extreme anti-Islam views drove a car into a crowd of revelers.

In the midst of this tragedy, victim assistance has received increased attention. For many of the victims, the wounds are not only physical but also psychological. Trauma therapy, counseling services, and self-help groups help to provide a safe space to process what they have experienced.

But crisis professionals face unique challenges, especially in a city like Magdeburg, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, where no attack like this has ever happened before. They help victims to channel their various traumatic experiences.

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"It's the images that they've seen. The sounds of the car as it was coming towards them. The smells. Not being able to sleep. Basically, all of this is difficult for a person to grasp at first. In victim counseling, you have to try to absorb these feelings," Marco Vogler, the Catholic state police chaplain of Saxony-Anhalt, told DW.

This is a major challenge, he said, especially since each person........

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