A Night Divided

A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen dramatizes the experiences of the division of Germany after World War II and tells a tale of family separation from a child’s perspective. The novel explores the effects of repressive government on intimate relationships as the main character, 12-year-old Gerta, watches friendships and partnerships dissolve due to the Cold War. It is a story of individual heroism and family devotion. The novel became an ILA-CBC Children’s Choices Reading List Selection.

Content Warning: The novel and this guide discuss torture and police brutality.

At the start of the novel, Gerta is ignorant of the political challenges she and her family face. Her father has a history of government critique but has been careful to hide this from his children. Still traumatized by World War II, Gerta’s mother wants nothing to do with dissidents or protesting and desires only to keep her family clothed, fed, and safe. All this changes, however, when the Berlin Wall is erected overnight, while Gerta, her family, and the rest of Germany sleeps.

Because he has been seeking employment in West Berlin, Gerta’s father is separated from them, now a denizen of another world. Her brother, Dominic, who had accompanied her father over to West Germany, is also lost to them. Gerta, her mother, and her older brother, Fritz, are now barracked into their communist half of the nation in East Berlin. They cannot communicate with Gerta’s father or Dominic, and they cannot receive monetary support or unadulterated letters. They begin living their lives with the new menacing partition of the wall splitting their family in half.

Neither Fritz nor Gerta are followers by nature. Fritz craves the amenities available in West Berlin—the Beatles albums, the Coca-Cola, and the right to dress as he pleases. Gerta poorly disguises her irritation during the indoctrination rituals at school and the Pioneer Club. But what sparks their rebellion is a sighting of other members of their family. First, Gerta spies a glimpse of her brother, Dominic, on the other side of the wall. Though watch tower guards tell her to stop looking over there, a few days later, she sees her father, who begins doing a dance and mouthing the lyrics to a song she used to sing her. She realizes that this is a message and that the word he leaves off is pivotal. That word is “dig.”

Following a map delivered to her by her friend, Anna, Gerta locates a building under which she and Fritz can tunnel to get to West Berlin. The process, however, is fraught with difficulty. Snooping neighbors and roaming guards are always nearby, forcing the siblings to pretend to be innocently working a garden while working hard to tunnel to freedom. When Anna’s older brother, Peter, dies while trying to get across to the West, the government forces Anna to become a spy and she, too, tries to interrupt their progress.

After countless obstacles, military conscription for Fritz, a work demotion for Gerta’s mother, and connections with some unlikely allies, Gerta and her family are finally reunited. By the novel’s end, Gerta has gained a newfound appreciation for freedom of speech and expression and a tangible sense of what heroism looks like in the real world.