Waiting for the Train on the Anhalter Bahnhof, Berlin. December 1945

In May 1945 Kessell was commissioned as an official war artist by the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC) to visit Germany, just as the war in Europe was ending. She was to record the plight of the millions of refugees moving through Europe in the aftermath of the German surrender. She was one of only two women artists who were officially commissioned to record the war abroad.Her diary entry records: "Berlin Tuesday 10 September 1945 The afternoon at the railway station Berlin. Shall I ever forget them? I saw not a single train come in – or leave. . . The scenes were quite the worst I’ve witnessed. Like Goya come to life. People sitting & lolling & sleeping – waiting for the trains that might come today or perhaps come tomorrow. Filthy, lousy, abject bundles of humanity. Utterly apathetic – just bundles. I had to tell myself that God loved them & cared where they got to – till the tears poured down my face. German soldiers – home with nothing on their feet, filthy clothes – unshaven – stinking – limbless bundles with great eyes . . .Remember for ever those things that war has made – I felt so ashamed standing there in my uniform & clean shoes, saying ‘no’ when I was asked for a cigarette. And the baby who cried for an hour until I removed some of the luggage from its pram".