In this chap­ter of “Moth­er Night,” the nar­ra­tor reflects on an emo­tion­al reunion with his wife, Hel­ga. The cou­ple finds them­selves amidst a mix of joy­ous and somber feel­ings as they nav­i­gate their shared past and the tri­als that have sep­a­rat­ed them for many years. The scene begins with the cou­ple ascend­ing to the attic, accom­pa­nied by oth­ers includ­ing Father Kee­ley and Vice-Bun­des­führer Krapp­tauer, who observes the poignant moment.

The nar­ra­tor, still grap­pling with dis­be­lief, inquires about how Hel­ga came to be found. Jones, a mutu­al acquain­tance, explains the “fan­tas­tic coin­ci­dence” that led to this moment, high­light­ing the mirac­u­lous cir­cum­stances of their reunion. Sur­pris­ing­ly, it was a read­er of Jones’ paper who alert­ed him of Hel­ga’s pres­ence in West Berlin, prompt­ing these events. Hel­ga express­es her uncer­tain­ty about their future, believ­ing the nar­ra­tor had moved on dur­ing their pro­longed sep­a­ra­tion.

As Hel­ga recounts her har­row­ing expe­ri­ences over the last fif­teen years, she reveals the emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal toll of her past. Cap­tured and sub­ject­ed to rape in Crimea, she was then trans­port­ed to Ukraine, forced into labor with­out any free­dom or iden­ti­ty. Helga’s nar­ra­tive unfolds to depict the bleak exis­tence of women like her—“stumbling sluts” mar­ried to hardship—wandering through a dev­as­tat­ed land­scape with­out hope or direc­tion.

The nar­ra­tor lis­tens intent­ly, reflect­ing on draw­ings he made on the win­dow, rep­re­sent­ing dif­fer­ent ide­olo­gies of the world—Nazi, Com­mu­nist, and American—highlighting a vast his­to­ry filled with suf­fer­ing yet absent of inno­cence. Hel­ga nar­rates her escape from labor, sub­se­quent cap­ture, and years spent in a prison camp over­see­ing S.S. sol­diers, now mere shad­ows of their for­mer selves.

Even­tu­al­ly, she is repa­tri­at­ed not to Berlin but to Dres­den, man­ag­ing to escape once more to even­tu­al­ly reach West Berlin. The chap­ter clos­es with the rev­e­la­tion that Hel­ga’s jour­ney was fund­ed by admir­ers of the nar­ra­tor, who acknowl­edge the brav­ery he showed in speak­ing the truth dur­ing the war, con­trast­ing with the sur­round­ing lies. The emo­tions between Hel­ga and the nar­ra­tor inten­si­fy as they con­front their shared past and uncer­tain future in a world that has dra­mat­i­cal­ly changed.