‘It’s OK, Hester,’ Lotti said reassuringly. ‘It’s only the usual office or shop rampage. We’ll cross the road if they make you nervous.’

Hester made no response. The stormtroopers piled out of the truck, pistols on their hips, truncheons in their hands. A house door was rammed in and as they charged up the stairs beyond it, a woman began screaming.

Aware that this was something more horrid than the routine destruction of an office used by a subversive political party, Lotti said tautly, ‘Let’s go back the way we came. Let’s take another route.’

‘And turn our backs on it?’ Hester’s face was as white as a sheet. ‘Pretend it isn’t happening?’

Men were being dragged out of the house and into the street, vainly trying to shield their heads as blows from the truncheons rained down on them.

On the far side of the street a group of bystanders was forming. Other pedestrians, businessmen and women with shopping baskets simply continued walking, neatly stepping out of the way as the men were herded into the back of the truck. ‘Jewboys,’ a portly man carrying a briefcase said dismissively to Hester and Lotti as he walked past them. ‘The street won’t stink so much now they’ve gone.’

Lotti was just about to make a savage response when Hester clutched her arm. ‘No, Lotti! Don’t draw attention to me!’

Appalled at how different the situation was for Hester than for herself, Lotti shut her mouth abruptly.

The truck revved up, about to move off. As it did so, an elderly woman rushed out of the house and began running dementedly after it, screaming abuse.

‘Oh, God.’ Lotti’s face was now as white as Hester’s. ‘Oh, Christ!’

The truck slowed. Two stormtroopers leapt down from it, truncheons raised.

Some of the bystanders finally averted their gaze, hurrying away.

Lotti didn’t hurry away.

As the woman fell beneath the blows, she tore herself from Hester’s grasp and began to run.

The stormtroopers, satisfied with their work, vaulted back into the truck, and by the time Lotti reached the crumpled body the vehicle was roaring out of the street and towards the Ku’damm.

The woman was conscious, bleeding from a blow to her head.

‘Can you move? Can you get up?’ Lotti asked urgently, kneeling at her side.

As she tried to lift her into a sitting position, she heard the sound of Hester running towards them.

‘We need to get her back into the house,’ she said as Hester came to a floundering halt, gasping for breath.

Bending down, Hester put an arm around the woman’s waist and together, with difficulty, they hauled her to her feet, holding on to her to keep her upright.

No one came to help them. Most of the bystanders had now disappeared, though a couple of them remained, standing on the opposite side of the street, watching.

‘She needs a doctor,’ Lotti said as she and Hester half-carried the woman out of the street and across the pavement.