Summary

When news of Germany losing the war reaches Herta in April, 1945, she leaves the camp and sets out for home on foot. Herta leaves, her journey mingling with the journeys of hundreds of migrating Germans, journeying to escape the Red Army. Herta comforts herself on her long journey to Düsseldorf with the thought of her mother’s cooking that will be waiting for her at home: fried onions, mashed potatoes and applesauce. Upon reaching the city, Herta is forced to keep her head down when she realizes Americans are everywhere, “Not that I was high on the authorities’ list of suspects. Did they even care about me? They had bigger fish to fry” (286). She knocks on her mother’s apartment and the door swings open to reveal Gunther, the man her mother has been living with in the years since...