A Night Divided

“People had noticed the widening gap between our countries. As more East Berliners left each week, those of us who remained whispered in dark corners about what if we left too. I heard them. I watched as neighbors and friends made their plans to go.”

Gerta understands the division between the two nations before the official partition is erected under cover of night. Her father is one of those who wishes to go, but her mother is afraid to leave behind a life she knows; even within Gerta’s home, there is a rift.

“With each brick, my hopes faded until nothing was left. If there had ever been a chance of Dominic and my father returning, then the wall took that too.”

For Gerta, the wall is not just a partition between parts of a once-united nation. It also blocks her away from her father, who has left intending to find work and a place to live for his family. Her younger brother has gone along with him to serve as conspicuous proof that Gerta’s father is a dependable family man.

“My heart was pounding, just as hers surely was but for an entirely different reason. All I could think was that after four long years, I had finally seen my brother. And I hoped it wasn’t for the last time.”

Gerta’s spotting of her brother, Dominic, on the other side of the wall is complete happenstance. It fills her with a sense of hope that she hasn’t felt since the wall went up. Her father and brother are there and she hopes to get to them.

“Nobody could succeed here but most people around me seemed to be okay with that. It meant they wouldn’t fail either.”

The culture of East Germany emphasizes the collective and compliance. Gerta sees the effects of this everywhere, even in the numb passive faces she encounters at the grocery store. There is a lack of passion and a feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness; it’s as though people now live in a sort of purgatory.

“‘That’s not how bravery works,’ Fritz said. ‘Courage isn’t knowing you can do something; it’s only being willing to try...’”

Gerta and Fritz discuss Peter, Anna’s brother, and his decision to try and cross over to the West. Though his family views his action as cowardly and selfish, Fritz sees the act as brave. Gerta is not sure what to make of it but her brother’s definition of bravery sticks with her. This quote also relates to the theme of Bravery in the Face of Oppression.

“Don’t ask questions like that. Don’t even think questions like that.”

While Fritz encourages Gerta toward bravery and action, her best friend, Anna, always reminds her to be cautious, that the consequences of speaking up could be disastrous. In this instance, the friends are walking beside the wall and Gerta is trying to weigh out the dangers of trying to cross to the West. This bifurcation of talking and thinking relates to how the East German government was able to instill a paranoid fear in its citizens through constant surveillance; here, the implication is that those in charge can not only hear a person but also read their very thoughts.

“Although my instinct was to leave the basement as soon as possible, I forced myself to stay and stare at the shovel.”

Gerta is not sure what to make of the secret, pantomimed song/message that her father conveys to her from his side of the wall. She knows that digging is involved, but what and where? A part of her feels that this is too dangerous a question to ask, yet she continues out of loyalty to her father.

“It was behind the glossy scenes that everything remained in ruins.”

Even at a young age, Gerta is acutely aware that too much of the East German government is theater, mere posturing to seem successful while poverty and need are rampant. The notion of the collective translated to suffering for the individual.

“Whether that was true or not, I chose to believe. I made myself believe it or the worry would drive me insane.”

Gerta realizes she will get no confirmation of her father’s message. She will simply need to believe in its power, despite the warnings she gets from her mother and her best friend. In this way, we see the need for faith among those who are attempting heroic acts.

“He looked exhausted and had a dark bruise on his cheek where someone must have hit him. From what I’d heard about the Stasi’s brutal methods of questioning, he was lucky if that’s all they had done.”

Fritz is marked as a target of the secret police after Peter’s disappearance/death. Fritz was aware of Peter’s plans and did not report them to the authorities. This alone makes Fritz a dissident in the government’s view. This passage may also foreshadow the death of the family’s neighbor later in the novel.

“You don’t understand how bad it is, Gerta. They have a file on you too.”

Gerta listens to her brother explain the way that their father’s political engagement has endangered them. Fritz is now being profiled and watched, simply for being his father’s son. Gerta is initially hopeful that if they keep their heads down and don’t call any extra attention to themselves, they’ll be okay. Fritz informs her that she’s wrong and that she’s already being surveilled.

“Sometimes we weren’t joking though. Sometimes we genuinely resented the life we were forced into. I could admit that. But was it a crime to feel that way?”

Listening to Beatles albums together, Gerta and Fritz discuss their lives and the limitations they face. Gerta wonders to herself if it’s illegal and dangerous to complain. It doesn’t seem right to her that the government can mandate that people should feel gratitude and behave uncomplainingly at all times.

“I turned away from him down another street, on a road that was the long way to my home too. Away from the disease.”

The loss of Anna’s friendship is devastating for Gerta. She doesn’t realize how her family is to blame but she knows her father and his political involvement is part of it. For once, Gerta hurries away from the wall, hoping not to see her father there.

“Despite its promises of a free press, the state controlled all printing machines and wrote the stories for the newspaper to publish. No citizen was allowed to write his own ideas.”

Herr Krause, Gerta’s neighbor, runs an illegal, homemade printing press in his home. He is eventually killed for doing this. Before his murder, though, Gerta manages to grasp the importance of his work, of fighting for free speech and free thought.

“[W]estern tourists […] often came to the wall on the weekend. They took pictures, brought their binoculars and stared into our world as if we either needed or wanted their pity. I hated that they watched but did nothing for us.”

The residents of Eastern Berlin are treated like animals in a zoo, with tourists from the West staring at them and photographing them. The experience is enraging for Gerta, who already feels her powerlessness and now feels both judged and forgotten as well.

“You’ve seen the sun, Anna. Now that you have, could you ever be content with just the stars for light?”

Gerta feels the need to try to explain to Anna why Peter risked his life getting to freedom. To Gerta, it makes sense to pursue what you are passionate about, even at the cost of personal safety. Fritz and her father have helped her understand this truth.

“Mama often warned me that the Stasi had blanketed the country with informants. It might be a bus driver, or a co-worker or even a family member.”

Gerta has learned to be careful, mostly because her mother has drilled this message into her head—that not everyone she meets is someone she can be open and honest with. Gerta keeps this idea in mind while she tries to fulfill the work she believes her father wants her to undertake.

“Refusing to serve, the letter clearly stated, would have serious consequences. Well, of course it would. Everything had serious consequences.”

Fritz is expected to comply with the government’s orders to report for required military service. Fritz and Gerta realize that he cannot do this and he also cannot refuse.

“[B]esides, the war was the crime of my grandparents’ generation. I didn’t see why I should be forced to share in their penance.”

It seems unjust to Gerta that her generation is made to suffer for what the Nazis did. They are not free to map their future with any amount of personal freedom.

“[T]he expression on my face must have invited questions. But nobody said a word. Perhaps God still granted miracles to those behind the Iron Curtain.”

Gerta is in the tunnel and expects to be found out at any moment. She realizes how dangerous and how forbidden her work digging the tunnel truly is. When she doesn’t immediately get found, it serves as confirmation to her that she should keep going.

“Fritz looked up at me, his eyes burning with curiosity. I wrote one more word: Tunnel.”

Gerta is initially nervous about sharing her plans with Fritz. She knows from the experiences of Anna’s brother that a sibling can pay acutely for their brother or sister’s perceived sins and she wants to spare Fritz any possible danger. But when she sees how intensely he is suffering and how likely he is to try and cross over on his own Gerta confides in him.

“This is better than trying to swim the Spree. You’ll die if you go that way and whether you make it to the other side or not, what will the Stasi do to Mama and me afterward?”

Gerta expects Fritz to react differently than he does to the news of the tunnel. Rather than being enthusiastic, he’s skeptical. He still believes swimming to freedom might be more plausible. Gerta reminds him to think of his family, though, and what would happen to the family members he’d leave behind.

“I wanted a home without hidden microphones, and friends and neighbors I could talk to without wondering if they would report me to the secret police.”

The persecution of Gerta’s neighbor and the bugging of her apartment make it clear to her just how little personal freedom she has in East Germany. She cannot vocalize her thoughts and share them with others, lest these friends and neighbors should turn out to be spies. This passage encapsulates just how difficult life in a surveillance state can be.