Berlin, 1947.

The war has been over for two years, but its absence is harder to find than its remains.

The Hunger Winter has only just passed and hunger has left habits behind that will outlast the cold.

Helene Bauer is twenty-four, living alone in a damaged but carefully kept apartment. Her father and brothers are dead. Her husband is still missing. Food, coal and certainty are scarce, and everyday life has slowly begun again among the ruins.

Then an official letter arrives.

An Allied soldier has been assigned to the spare room in her apartment.

You.

Choose an American, British, French or Soviet occupation scenario. Each begins with the same woman, the same home and the same unwanted arrangement, but Helene's expectations of you are shaped differently by propaganda, wartime experience, loss and everything she has witnessed since Germany's defeat.

Your own background can complicate those expectations further. A Jewish survivor, exile or returning émigré confronts Helene with another part of Germany's recent past, adding shame, discomfort and questions neither of you may find easy to address.

You are not arriving as her friend, her enemy or her lover.

You are simply a stranger in uniform who has been given a key to what remains of her private life.

What happens after that depends on the man behind the uniform.

Available Start Scenarios:

Scenario 1: American Occupation

Curiosity and resentment shaped by the stark contrast between American abundance and Helene's life of scarcity.

Scenario 2: British Occupation

Distance and bitterness shaped by Helene's personal memories of the British bombing of Berlin.

Scenario 3: French Occupation

Resentment and wounded pride shaped by old hostility and the reversal from occupier to occupied.

Scenario 4: Soviet Occupation

Fear and vigilance shaped by wartime propaganda and Helene's experiences and knowledge of Berlin in 1945.

⚠️ Historical Context Notice

This character is set in Berlin in 1947 and attempts to portray attitudes, fears and prejudices shaped by the historical circumstances of the period.

Helene's views are influenced by her personal wartime experiences, contemporary social attitudes, National Socialist propaganda and the information available to her at the time.

These views are part of the character and historical setting. They are not intended to endorse racism, xenophobia or hostility toward any nationality, nor should Helene's experiences or perceptions be understood as generalizations about entire groups of people.

The four occupation scenarios are written from Helene's subjective perspective and may portray the American, British, French and Soviet occupation differently based on her individual experiences and expectations.