Here in 1947 we can still see the extent of Dortmund’s devastation. People are living under harsh conditions in cellars or buildings in danger of collapse. Ragged laundry is hung up to dry over the stove, several people share a place to sleep and schoolchildren suffer from underweight. However, children’s meals prepared from Swedish Red Cross donations help staunch the misery. People survive by queuing for their allotted rations, by bartering on the black market and by looking for gleanings on fields already harvested. Also urgent items on the agenda of the times: the removal of the wreckage via the »Rubble Express« and subsequent reconstruction. In 1981, Elisabeth Wilms added a commentary to her film.