Frederick knew he would return to Elinor, but he didn’t know when and he didn’t know how. He was also broke and hadn’t been in regular contact with his parents since his conscription. He was bitter about his layover in the transitional camp in England, but after his stint was up, he returned to Austria.

Vienna had been spared heavy destruction compared to other major cities, particularly in Germany, and for a while during the war, Karl, Margarete, and Charlotte were able to make do with the bomb shelters in the basements of their apartment buildings until official shelters were built across the city. Charlotte remembered sweeping up dirt and pieces of glass scattered in the streets from the impact of the nearby air raids.

The devastation of the bombings changed landscapes entirely. By the end of the war, 75 percent of Germany had been severely bombed. More than 150 cities were decimated by air raids, with many repeatedly bombed into oblivion. The city of Kassel lost 10,000 civilians in a single night, on October 22, 1943, after an unrelenting series of bombs was unleashed by British warplanes. In Hamburg, more than 45,000 German residents died one July evening after a firestorm spread through the city. The number of German civilian deaths caused by Allied air raids alone was 600,000, and out of that, it was reported, 76,000 were children.22

Frederick moved in with Charlotte, who still had an intact apartment. Fortunately, it was in the American zone of Vienna, as opposed to the Russian zone, where she heard about people being robbed, raped, and killed by Soviet soldiers. She was divorced from her Austrian husband and had given her baby daughter, Kristina, to her parents to raise; Karl and Margarete had temporarily moved in with Margarete’s sister in Siegen, Germany. Frederick relied on Charlotte completely and received food stamps provided by Allied occupying forces. Fortunately, he was able to resume his studies at the art academy while he figured out a way to return to Elinor.23