This is a very short story, but it has it all, a sympathetic protagonist, a dramatic setting, and a challenging situation leading to all kinds of possible plot developments, including a happy ending (maybe). And oh yeah, plenty of pathos and poignancy.

The protagonist was one of a pair of twins born in a dirty back alley in Berlin (the dramatic setting) shortly before the end of the war (the dramatic situation). His drug-addicted mother (dramatic pathos) lost a foot when a Russian soldier threw a hand grenade into that alley, just in case (serious poignancy).

After that, she spent her days at the end of the alley trying to get money from the Russian soldiers by selling her body. She took one of the twins along with her because that seemed to help get money from the soldiers. Our protagonist was left in the alley and was taken care of (sort of) by the other inhabitants of the alley. They called him Twintwo, and therefore, that eventually became the only name he knew.

When the Allies came into the city, they found it virtually destroyed. But they still went about dividing it up, part to the Russians, part to the Americans, part to the British, and part to the French. The very alley I've been telling you about just happened to be a dividing line between sectors. Some of the alley's inhabitants realized what was going to happen, so they ran toward the American soldiers. They brought along Twintwo. The mother of the twins, having lost a foot, was unable to keep up.

The alley's inhabitants, including Twintwo, where put into an American military truck.

When the Russian soldiers came, they found only the woman and Twinone. They were loaded into a Russian military truck.

Therefore, Twintwo grew up in an orphanage where he saw the rebuilding of the city, the Berlin wall going up, the start of the Cold War, all from the relative safety of Berlin's American Sector (the happy ending, sort of).

The mother died of unknown causes while in Russian captivity (sorry). Her son, Twintwo, became a well-known street criminal, having success stealing and selling post-war provisions in the Russian sector until the night he was shot dead by a Russian secret agent (sorry again).