After World War II, director Ingmar Bergman had visited numerous cities in other countries in Europe. He based the design of "The Silence" on what he had seen in these travels, in particular in Hamburg, Germany in 1946, after it had been virtually destroyed by Allied bombing attacks. He also recalled he had been inspired by a visit to a hospital, where he had witnessed an obese, elderly man being carried by four nurses. "The image of him being carried away like a dummy stayed in my mind, although I didn't really know exactly why," he recalled.