“Please,” she said. “I need to know. Every woman in Königsberg wants to know what to expect. Particularly the women in the auxiliary services. You see, none of us in the auxiliary is particularly sure of our status as noncombatants. We’re in uniform and are obliged to obey military orders but forbidden to use weapons and we’re subject to civilian law. So where does that leave us? Will we be treated like civilians or prisoners of war? And will it matter a damn which is which when the Russians turn up? I don’t mind dying. But I’d rather not be gang-raped before I die.”

I didn’t speak. How could I tell her what I knew? The things I’d heard from the few survivors of Nemmersdorf beggared description.

“Please, Bernie. Look, the word is that there were seventy-two women and girls in Nemmersdorf aged between eight and eighty-four. And that all of them were raped.”

I nodded. “As a matter of fact, it’s worse. Much worse than anything you’ve heard.”

“How is that possible?”

“Raped, mutilated, and murdered.” I paused. “All of them. Women crucified. Breasts cut off. Violated with vodka bottles. Your worst nightmare. What happened at Schulzenwalde was worse. There were ninety-five at Schulzenwalde. Dr. Goebbels is already organizing a team of Swiss and Swedish reporters and observers to go and see the place for themselves so he can tell the world’s press that this is what Germany has been fighting against all along. Frankly, I think you can expect the newsreels to start getting worse from now on. They’ll be telling the truth, in other words. As you say, their intention is now to deter us from surrendering. As if fighting on to the last is really going to make any damn difference.”

“Why are the Russians doing this? I thought there were supposed to be rules on how you treat people in war.”

“There are. It’s just that we’ve treated Soviet POWs and Jews so very badly that we can expect no better treatment ourselves. There’s a concentration camp to the west of here called Stutthof where more than a hundred thousand people—mostly Poles—are currently imprisoned. But we’ve been starving and murdering Jews there for a year.”

Irmela nodded. “Which would fit with what we’ve heard in the signals. Naval captains have been complaining to their superiors here and in Danzig. Ships from the German navy have been used by the SS to take Jews to Stutthof from a camp called Klooga in Estonia. Apparently those prisoners were in a pretty bad way.”

“Look,” I said, “I think there’s every chance we’ll get all of the women and children out of Königsberg before the Red Army finally gets here. But before that happens, things in this city are going to get an awful lot worse.”