"Guten Abend" ( good evening ) were the first words that two Soviet soldiers addressed in German to the frightened population when they marched into Knoblauch, a small village near Berlin. They were these words which took away the pent-up fear of the people intimidated by the propaganda and coverage of the terrible events of the war.

Personal experiences during the time between the end of the war and the immediate post-war period in and around Berlin of a boy and his mother who had previously fled West Prussia and who had experienced the heavy bombing raids in the last phase of the Second World War show a partly different picture than that, whatever has always been presented as historical facts.