A Night Divided

Gerta and Fritz decide to keep their neighbor’s arrest a secret from their mother, as she seems to be happier. But the routine is little consolation to Gerta, who keeps the stamped words of Herr Krause in mind. What does it mean to her sense of self that she must pretend to be someone else and think other thoughts? She is wondering this when one day she walks along the side of the wall and again spots her father. He begins to do the same dance he did the first time Gerta saw him. This time, Gerta bends down and draws something in the dirt, before the guards can spot it—“X marks the spot” (77). Her father nods back and she realizes that he has understood and that she is right, that she needs to uncover something. The question is what, and where.

A bit of an answer arrives via a note passed at school the next day. Though Anna continues to avoid her, Anna passes Gerta a message in class. It surprises Gerta to get this missive from Anna, who still insists they can no longer be friends. The drawing is cryptic, “just a pencil drawing of an old building” (78), yet it’s clear to Gerta that this is a building she needs to find, a space where she needs to dig up whatever her father left behind to help them to freedom.

On a Saturday morning, Gerta’s mother sends her to bring a loaf of bread over to Anna’s family. It’s not much, but it’s all Gerta’s family can spare to show their silent support of Anna’s family. Gerta is not optimistic that the visit will go well, and she is right, as the two former friends argue at Anna’s doorstep.

Anna is still angry at her deceased brother and at all those who think like him. She asks Gerta, “We have a good life here […] Why wasn’t that enough for him?” (83). Anna is unable to see things the way Peter did, but for Gerta, it makes perfect sense. She tries to explain it to Anna, saying, “You’ve seen the sun, Anna. Now that you have, could you ever be content with just the stars for light?” (83).

This description does not move Anna, though. Instead, she slams the door on Gerta. Gerta feels that she “became a disease again” in the eyes of her former friend (84). Gerta heads home, chagrined, and that’s when she spots it: the building she’s been looking for. It is adjacent to the Wall, on a “small patch of forgotten farmland […] infested with weeds” (85). Gerta knows this is the space where she needs to dig and heads home to find the shovel.

While her mother is at church and Fritz is meeting with friends and a girl, Claudia, whom Gerta suspects is her brother’s new girlfriend, Gerta hauls her mother’s garden shovel across town to the building. En route, she encounters a nosy neighbor, Frau Eberhart, who asks if Gerta’s mother knows where she is and what she’s doing. Gerta makes up a quick lie, saying that she is planting a garden in an abandoned yard as a surprise for her mother. She realizes that “in the west,” Frau Eberhart might be “dismissed as a simple busybody,” but “behind the wall, we all knew the neighborhood tattler was as dangerous as fire. Stasi informants were paid well” (88). Gerta is relieved when Frau Eberhart swallows this lie.

Once inside the building, which is rotten and moldy, Gerta realizes that its location is right on the dividing line between East and West, that she could be considered in the Death Strip just for being inside the building. She wants to run but forces herself to stay, in part bolstered by the faded “Welcome” sign she notices on the wall.

Gerta begins to dig and strikes metal under the ground too soon for anything good to be hidden, she decides. She continues to dig despite this, and soon she uncovers not the treasure she was hoping for but a door. It is the door of a fallout shelter, the kind found throughout Berlin. Gerta believes that this couldn’t have been what her father meant. She leaves not just without hope but feeling “that it was wrong […] to ever have had hope in the first place” (94).

When Gerta’s grandmother, Oma Gertrude, falls and breaks her leg, Gerta’s mother decides to temporarily relocate to the countryside to stay with her and care for her as she recovers. She hopes the State will give her work near Oma’s home and suggests that Fritz and Gerta go with her. Fritz suggests that he and Gerta stay behind in the city, until their mother’s return. School is almost out for summer, and he can work full time during the break. Reluctantly, their mother agrees.

Before their mother departs for the countryside, a letter arrives in the mail for Fritz. It is “from the military, reminding him that he would turn eighteen” and would be expected to serve or face “serious consequences” (96). The wording of the letter does not surprise Gerta, as everything seems to have serious consequences. Because the house is still bugged, Fritz must feign excitement about the letter, but outside of the house, he can be more honest with Gerta.

He tells her that because of the State’s file on him, Claudia’s parents will no longer let them date. Gerta tries to be supportive, saying she is sure he can get Claudia back, but Fritz warns her that the same complications will affect Gerta’s life soon enough—relationships, job prospects, and university applications. It is just a matter of time.

While their mother is away and Fritz is increasingly out on his own, Gerta decides to return to the digging spot her father indicated in his drawing. She thinks maybe she abandoned hope of finding something there much too quickly. She heads back over with her shovel and dashes inside as the city guards patrol in front of the building. In need of a safe hiding spot, she digs to gain access to the fallout shelter door and hurries through it.

As soon as she is inside, Gerta notices pipes “that seemed to carry in fresh air from somewhere outside” (103). Still, for the moment, she is more concerned with the guards outside and the ankle-deep water she is submerged in while hiding in the space of the bomb shelter. The realization dawns on her slowly: “If I went too far, I’d end up in the West” (105). Gerta realizes what her father wanted her to see now: that passage underground to the West is possible.

Gerta explores the shelter a bit more and begins to think about how she will go about constructing a tunnel. She asks herself, “What would it take to build a tunnel? […] Was I capable of all that on my own?” (109). The work will be intense but she doesn’t feel she has anyone else she can trust, as it looks to her like Fritz is “trying to be a model citizen, probably to get Claudia back” (110). She realizes she needs more time to think and prepare. She cleans herself up before heading home, careful not to attract the attention of the guards.

Back at home, Fritz is sullen and distant. Gerta isn’t sure why, and since their conversations are being listened to, they must exchange notes to truly communicate. While making mundane small talk aloud, Fritz passes Gerta notes about being fired from his bricklayer job. It is because of his file, they both know. Fritz then informs his sister via a secret note that he is leaving for the West that night. He plans to swim across the river; Gerta fears he will die. With tears in her eyes, she passes Fritz a note of her own, one with the same drawing she got from her father sketched on it. She writes down only one word: “tunnel” (114). Fritz understands and the two plan to meet there the next day.