The majority of the story takes place in Germany, and in one of their prisons. During this time, Hitler was in power of Germany, and the Holocaust was going on. Although, the Holocaust wasn't really mentioned very much in the story. The leader of the country at this time was Hitler, so of course, he was a friend. The place was in good shape, but Hitler did not invade because it was his home land. So the characters were not very affected by this. Although, because of the invasion, Helmuth decided to write the leaflets. It made him write the leaflets because he wanted to tell everybody about the truth. Therefor, setting himself up to go to jail, and to most likely get himself killed.