Two days later Martha and Lotte arrived in Berlin and parted ways. Lotte retraced the familiar steps from the central station, Bahnhof Zoo, to the apartment building where her family had lived for decades.
But nothing was familiar anymore. She barely recognized the streets and got lost more than once in the endless catalog of obliteration. It was like the jaws of hell had opened up and swallowed the entire city of Berlin, leaving only molten vomit behind.
As she trudged the streets, she saw women queuing for rations, women removing debris from the ruins, women collecting stones to be reused, women layering bricks, women repairing tram rails, women driving buses.
What she didn’t see were men.
Having lived surrounded by men in the garrison for such a long time, Lotte was amazed at the la
