A Night Divided

Even as Gerta is trying to process what has happened to her home and her family, she is lost in memories. She recalls a night recently when a neighbor came to their door. Herr Krause is a “bit odd” and according to Gerta’s mother “definitely should’ve been arrested” after the war (5). Herr Krause and Gerta’s father get along well, though, as both are treated with extreme suspicion by the Stasi, the secret police. Both are labeled dissidents—dangerous question-askers.

Though Gerta’s mother only let this neighbor in with great reluctance, he carried a warning and important information. Herr Krause strongly suspects that soon no one will be allowed to leave East Germany for the West. Herr Krause said that Gerta and her family had to try get to West Germany while it was still possible to do so. Gerta’s mother pushed back against this warning. She reminded Herr Krause and her husband, whose interest was piqued, that she has an invalid mother she cares for. Their children attend school in East Germany. More than anything, Gerta’s mother refused to live in poverty, in a refugee camp. As she exclaimed to her husband and neighbor: “I won’t bring my children into a camp. We’re not beggars!” (9).

Yet despite this clear fear of returning to the reduced living conditions that she endured during the war, Gerta’s mother agreed to let Gerta’s father travel to the West for a few days to look for an apartment for his family and try and go on some job interviews. Gerta’s mother suggested that her husband “bring one of the children […] so employers know [he has] a family to support” (9). Gerta’s father chose Dominic, the younger son, much to the chagrin of Fritz, the eldest, and Gerta, who would have also both liked to go with their father.

When it was time for Dominic and Gerta’s father to leave, he was merry, singing and kissing his family. He promised Gerta that he would see her again soon. But with the construction of the wall, Gerta wonders when she will see Dominic and her father again.

Residents become desperate to get out of East Germany, and Fritz and Gerta hope that their mother will be among those protesting or attempting an escape. The attempted escapes they witness, though, are traumatic and terrible. Those dwelling in an apartment nearest to the wall attempt to jump over the wall to get to the West. The government quickly begins bricking up all the exits of this apartment building so those inside cannot get out of the East. Despite this, some still try to escape. One woman “threw down a mattress and all her bedding from the third floor” as the police banged on her door to drag her out, but when she leaped out, “the cushions weren’t enough for the hard concrete below” (15). After this disturbing event, Fritz warns Gerta to expect more horrors and more deaths, including those of children, as people try to get out of East Germany.

Gerta hopes for resistance, but instead, at school, her teacher teaches the class “a new song that thanked our leaders for building a wall” (15). Thinking of her father and brother on the other side, Gerta can only mouth the words, being unable to voice them. At home, too, she fails to encounter the resistance she hopes for. Over dinner one night, Gerta’s mother tells her and Fritz: “We will never be able to leave […] the sooner you both accept that, the happier you will be” (16). To Gerta though, this is unacceptable.

Four years pass, and normalcy returns to East Germany, a terrible, sickening kind of normalcy, to Gerta’s mind. It upsets her, the way people have learned to live with the wall, the way people in East Germany have “learned to do as they were told without asking questions” (17). At age 12, Gerta is intrepid and ready to pick up on the dissident work her father had explored in the past when still with his family. The Stasi still come to visit her house to ask questions, supposedly. But, as Gerta thinks to herself but doesn’t dare speak aloud: “if they only come to ask questions, why did they bring their guns?” (20).

Gerta goes about doing the things expected of her as a good citizen East German citizen. With her shy, compliant friend, Anna, she participates in Pioneer Club, designed to dissuade East German youth from any interest in Western culture or values. At her mother’s urging, “we waved our flags at the parades and smiled at the leaders of the GDR, German Democratic Republic, our Communist government” (21). But a desire to rebel foments inside Gerta.

This desire intensifies when one day, while walking beside the wall with Anna, Gerta looks across and glimpses someone familiar. Though four years have passed, she realizes the boy she is staring at, squinting to get a good glimpse of, is her brother, Dominic. He recognizes her as well and begins to wave. When Gerta waves back, her actions attract the attention of the wall sentry, an officer named Muller, who tells her to step back and stop waving. He makes sure Gerta sees his gun. As the girls walk away, Anna makes Gerta promise she will never do that again.

Gerta is often in charge of grocery shopping, though in her estimate, it is a simple job because there are so few options to pick from. Often, Gerta notes, “the choice was between red cabbage and white cabbage” (27). More than anything, she longs for a banana, which are impossible to come by, and which she can only enjoy if Fritz can get one smuggled in from West Germany. Fritz also offers to get his sister some real cola, but when he tells her that “after that […] you’ll never want our cola again” (30), Gerta declines, figuring she already has enough to pine for and miss.

Her mother works to make dinnertime sedate and normal. She asks both of her children to talk about their day, but Fritz is taciturn, making Gerta suspicious. She wonders if perhaps her elder brother is planning something. Gerta also does not feel like talking, though her mother prompts her to discuss the events of Pioneer Club. Instead, she astonishes Fritz and her mother but telling them that she saw Dominic in the barbed wire Death Strip between the wall. She expects her mother to ask questions about her son—how he looked, what he was doing. But Gerta’s mother simply tells Gerta to stay away from the wall or she could get into trouble. Gerta is angry and confused, wondering if her mother forgot about the family members lost on the other side of the wall, or if her mother has just ceased caring.

After Gerta’s upsetting moment with her mother, Fritz and Gerta hole up in his room, listening to contraband Beatles records. Though Gerta can’t understand the words well and mostly enjoys the catchy rhyme, the music means a great deal to Fritz. He explains to Gerta: “For me, it’s the lyrics […] the things they write could not be played here” (35).

It is clear to Gerta that the desire for freedom and rebellion is pulling at her brother, more and more. He refuses to stop playing censored music like The Beatles, even though their mother badgers them about it being dangerous and someone potentially hearing it from the window. Fritz sees that Gerta is angry with their mother and tells her not to be, that she is just doing what she needs to do to survive. To Gerta, though, anger is a productive and reasonable emotion. Inwardly, she thinks: “our family was like a house of cards in a stiff wind. And when it became too much to feel the pain of our collapse, all I could do was become angry” (36).

Because Fritz notices the intensity of Gerta’s feelings, he asks his sister how much she would be willing to risk to get to the West. He tells her that the attempt could work or it could cost Gerta her life. When Gerta replies that she’d like to know how the odds are stacked, Fritz tells her: “That’s not how bravery works […] courage isn’t knowing you can do something; it’s only being willing to try” (37). He then tells Gerta information that shocks her: Her friend Anna’s older brother is attempting to cross over to the West that very night. The idea appeals to Fritz, and Gerta worries that maybe she is about to lose a second brother to the West very soon.

Out walking with Anna, Gerta feels pangs of guilt. Gerta knows about Anna’s brother’s plan to escape to freedom, but Anna does not. Gerta wonders how Anna’s family will feel when they realize he’s gone, “proud of his courage or ashamed that he’d abandoned them” (41). Gerta feels that Anna’s brother is brave, but listening to Anna complain about mundane things like the weather and the boy behind her in class, who pulls her hair, she realizes that Anna will never understand Peter’s need for freedom.

Gerta again hopes for a glimpse of her brother, and though Anna warns her to look away from the wall, Gerta instead strains for the sight of Dominic. Soon enough, she spots him in the same place he was the day before. This time, Dominic waves not to her but to someone on the same Western side of the wall. Gerta’s heart leaps when she realizes it is her father who “wore glasses now and his light brown hair seemed thinner” (43). Though his outward appearance has changed, his behavior has not. Rather than waving, he begins to dance, doing the gestures of a song he often sang Gerta before bed about a farmer. However, to Gerta’s confusion, he doesn’t do the song gestures all the way through. Instead, he stops at the part of the song about digging and he pantomimes digging again and again. Clearly, Gerta thinks that it’s a message. “Papa wanted me to dig,” she thinks to herself during her school day, “But why?” (45).

Gerta spends a lot of time thinking about what her father meant about digging. She goes and finds the family’s old garden shovel, hidden away in the basement. Is it possible that he wanted her to plant a vegetable garden? No, she decides, he must’ve wanted something more.

While Gerta is working on resolving that mystery, her mother delivers some tragic news. Peter, Anna’s brother, was shot in the back while trying to cross the wall. As Gerta’s mother tells her: “It’s a reminder to us all of what happens to those who try to escape” (49). While still struggling with the pain of this knowledge, it occurs to Gerta that Fritz is late getting home from work. Gerta has no choice but to admit to her mother that Fritz knew about Peter’s planned escape. Mother and daughter rush to Fritz’s work site only to learn from the foreman on the construction job that “the Stasi came to get him today” (52). When Gerta and her mother return home, Fritz’s room is in disarray. The Beatles record is smashed on the ground, and a poster of Ann Margaret is crumpled on the floor. Gerta is told to go to bed while her mother goes next door to seek the help of Herr Krause.

To Gerta’s surprise and relief, Fritz is back at home when she awakens the next morning, although “he looked exhausted and had a dark bruise on his cheek” (55). Her mother and Fritz sit in silence at first and then begin to exchange awkward conversation. Gerta is confused and wants answers as to where Fritz was and what happened to him. On a piece of paper, Fritz writes down that the apartment is bugged and someone is listening to them, so they must be careful about each word they speak and be careful to not to be silent for too long.

To talk candidly, Fritz volunteers to walk Gerta to school. He refuses to tell her exactly what happened to him when he was in the custody of the Stasi but he does tell her that Anna’s family will pay for Peter’s “transgression.” According to Fritz, now “they’ll have to work extra hard to prove their loyalty to the state” (59).

As for Gerta’s family, there can be no pretense of loyalty, Fritz has learned. While in custody, Fritz was first shown the file the government has compiled on his father. Now, Fritz says, they are compiling a file on him. When Gerta tries to protest that such a thing is ridiculous and that Fritz never did anything worse than smuggling in Beatles records or bananas, Fritz stops her, saying, “They have a file on you too” (62).

Gerta feels bad for Anna when she sees her at school, red-eyed and grieving. She tries to speak to Anna but Anna blames her, saying that Gerta is a bad influence and that her family is a bad influence. Gerta tries to defend herself and her family, saying, “the state can’t take away our friendship,” but Anna shakes her head no (66). It is too dangerous for Anna to know Gerta at this point. Gerta thinks of the file the government is compiling on her and decides inwardly, “my father had infected me,” that she was no longer innocent or safe simply because she was his daughter (67). Walking home past the wall, she catches a glimpse of her father. Again, he begins his dance, encouraging her to dig. This time she doesn’t stand and watch. Instead, she takes the long way home, away from her father, “away from the disease” (67).