Stein and his family had been among more than sixteen hundred fellow Jews on Majestic 33, the thirty-third transport from Berlin to the Auschwitz death camp. According to the records Steiner had found, the family had assembled at the old people’s home on Grosse Hamburger Strasse on 3 March 1943 before being taken to Putlitzstrasse station in the Moabit. They’d reached Auschwitz the following day, and all had perished within hours of their arrival.

Max Stein’s story would be that he alone of his family had in fact survived. After a series of death marches in late 1944, he’d ended up at Buchenwald and had been there when the camp was liberated. Steiner was counting on people feeling it was not right to question Stein too closely: the poor man had been through hell as it was.

He avoided shaving for a couple of days, and his shabby clothing was two sizes too large for him. He thought he looked credible to a degree, though he doubted the identity would hold up to concerted questioning.

He left the farm early on the Thursday morning. The man who collected the milk gave him a lift in his lorry and dropped him near a bus stop. Once he was sure no one was around, he went into a wood and changed into his Max Stein clothes, then caught a bus to Passau. He decided that his best bet was to take the most direct route to Berlin, so he headed due north, entering the Soviet zone south-west of Chemnitz. The identity held good in Dresden; he’d planned on staying the night there, but so little of the city was left, he decided to move on. An obliging Red Army officer gave him a lift to Leipzig and told him how his own family had perished at one of the camps. He even arranged for him to stay in a school the Red Army had taken over, one of the few large buildings still standing in the city.

The next day, he took a bus to Berlin, but at a checkpoint on the edge of the city, an NKVD officer was a bit too diligent.

What was your address in Reinickendorf?

Give me the names of some neighbours.

Which synagogue did you attend?

Where did you work?

Explain your presence in the Soviet zone.

Steiner worried he’d been more hesitant with his answers than he ought to have been, and decided he had to take matters into his own hands.

‘How dare you question me like this – don’t you think I’ve been through enough? The Nazis murdered my family and now I’m returning home to try and see if there’s anyone I know who’s alive, and you behave like one of them!’

He’d raised his voice, and the officer appeared taken aback and apologised: he hadn’t meant to upset Herr Stein, but he hoped he understood…

Max Stein said he didn’t understand. He certainly didn’t understand why he was being treated like a bloody criminal, and he shouted so loudly that a senior officer came over and asked what on earth was going on. He was most apologetic once things were explained to him.