After focusing on the effects of the war on the Italian people in “Rome Open City” and “Paisan”, Roberto Rossellini went to Berlin to tell the story of the enemy, and what he found was a great city in rubble, the lingering effect of the Nazis starving the people, and widespread poverty. Rossellini conveys this through the downward descent of 12-year-old Hitler Youth Edmund, who becomes susceptible to the destruction and schemes surrounding him, suggesting a shared hell that war, at home or abroad, is equally psychologically and socially devastating.