The House of One Thousand Eyes by Michelle Barker

It is 1983 and seventeen-year-old Lena Altmann lives in the Better Germany, in the borough of Lichtenberg,  East Berlin, with her Aunt Adelheid. Lena's parents died in a factory accident at the freight car factory in Magdegurg where they had lived, when she was fourteen. Before the accident Lena was a good student, earning recognition for Enthusiasm in Handicrafts. However, her life changed drastically after the accident: Lena had a mental breakdown and was sent to a hospital to recover. She never returned to school despite her dream of continuing her education and her desire to become a nurse or work with children. Instead, she now works as a night janitor at Stasi headquarters, a place Berliners refer to as the House of One Thousand Eyes.

As soon as anyone learns of Lena's job, the conversation always changes, as if "...she was a giant microphone, recording everything and then running back to headquarters with secret information about who was reading the wrong books or receiving packages from Western relatives."

On Sundays Lena visits her mother's brother, her Uncle Erich who lives in the neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg. On her latest visit to Uncle Erich, who is a writer and who has been in trouble before, he asks Lena if she still has the keys to his apartment and makes the strange remark that his freezer may need defrosting. Lena has a copy of every single book her Uncle Erich has written including his well known, Castles Underground. While visiting him, his neighbour, Steffi arrives to warn Erich that he's not safe, and that the State Security Service (Stasi) are coming. Although Uncle Erich brushes off Steffi's concerns he  gives her his notebooks for safekeeping, warning that she too will have to be careful.

After her visit, Lena wonders if her uncle is in trouble. Later that night, she sneaks out of the house and travels to his apartment. Hiding in the shadows she witnesses a flower van outside his apartment and a man who is not Erich leaning out of the window. Another van arrives and all of Erich's possessions, his typewriter, books, suitcases and notebooks are removed from the apartment. A man in a Lada is stationed outside, watching the apartment. Lena believes he's waiting for Erich to return home so she heads to the pub he frequents to warn him, but he isn't there and no one has seen him.

Lena returns home, sleeping in and forgetting to get meat at the shop the next morning. After helping her neighbours, Peter and Danika, on the project to beautify their apartment courtyard, Lena heads to work. Lena's partner at the Stasi compound on Normannenstrasse is Jutta, an older woman who asks every Monday about Lena's visit to her Uncle Erich. Lena and Jutta each have their own floors to clean. Lena dreads cleaning her floor because of Bruno Drechsler, who forces her to commit sex acts every night she works and whom she calls Herr Dreck which means filth.  In the morning after work, Lena and Jutta go to House 1 where they are able to get Western foods that are brought in just for the Stasi staff.

Lena decides to visit Uncle Erich's apartment only to discover it is now occupied by a strange man named Friedrich who insists he has lived there for the past five years. At first Lena believes her uncle has run away. However, Lena's thinking begins to change as she makes several discoveries. The first is the discovery that someone has searched through her bedroom, removing her hidden pictures of Uncle Erich. Then Lena unexpectedly encounters Steffi, who believes that Lena reported her uncle. She tells Lena, "There is no Erich anymore." and advises her that she shouldn't go looking for him or asking about him. At home Lena discovers Erich's books, hidden under her mattress are also gone.  When she tells her aunt, Lena is told she doesn't have an uncle and that there were no books under her mattress. Her aunt tells her she must accept that he has gone.

Lena's efforts to prove to herself that her Uncle Erich did exist prove fruitless. At the library there are no copies of his books. However when she finds a picture of Marilyn Monroe that Uncle Erich let her cut from his magazine,  in her sweater pocket, Lena knows he did exist and her self-doubt vanishes. From this point on Lena is determined to learn what has happened to her beloved Uncle Erich. It is a journey that will lead her to take risks that are so dangerous she is re-committed to the asylum. But along the way, Lena discovers an inner strength that allows her to face her abuser, and help another person escape to West Germany.

Discussion

The House of One Thousand Eyes, its title a reference to the nickname given to the headquarters of the Stasi, paints a picture of life under the repressive communist government in East Berlin. The city of Berlin, capital of Germany was divided into two (initially four zones immediately after the war) after the fall of Germany during World War II. West Berlin which was controlled by the Allies eventually became part of the Federal Republic of Germany while East Berlin which had been under Soviet control became part of the German Democratic Republic or East Germany. This was in spite of the fact that the city of Berlin lay within East Germany. In 1961 the Berlin Wall, called the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart by the leaders of communist East Germany, was constructed within hours, to stop the drain of young, educated Germans, especially professionals and skilled workers, to West Berlin and to the FRG.

Closed off from the West, life in East Berlin became increasingly intolerable: the people in the city were expected to follow all the communist party rules and they were often spied on by their fellow citizens. Cameras and hidden microphones were also used spy on people. Anyone copying Western trends in fashion, music or culture was deemed subversive.  The Stasi kept file cards on millions of East Germans. Despite the barbed wire, guards, concrete walls and soldiers guarding the Berlin Wall, many still tried to escape to the West.

The communist world of East Berlin provides the setting for the story told in  The House of One Thousand Eyes. Lena Altmann is recovering from a mental breakdown after the death of her parents in an industrial accident.  Now living with her aunt who has connections in the communist party, Lena is employed as a cleaner at the Stasi headquarters. Lena doesn't much like her aunt but she does love her aunt's brother, her Uncle Erich who is a writer and who has worked in the mines and who shares her love of Western culture and "yeah, yeah, yeah music". When Uncle Erich disappears, Lena believes he has been taken away and she becomes determined to learn his fate.

His disappearance seems to awaken Lena from the stupor she has experienced since the death of her parents. To protect herself and to help her cope with her loss, Lena had built a wall in her mind, but this wall was making it difficult for her to recognize reality. When she had been in the hospital she had to built this wall, by co-operating with the doctors as Uncle Erich had secretly advised her, so she would be discharged. Lena had put a part of herself to sleep, "And that part had slept so well it had forgotten to wake up -- until last week." 

Although Lena has been told by her aunt that she is "simple", her actions show that she is anything but. Just as her Uncle Erich incorporated "another story underneath, humming like a machine" into his surface story when he wrote, Lena, in her bedroom, hides the pictures she really wants beneath pictures deemed acceptable by the communist government. So Uncle Erich's picture hides beneath that of Erich Honecker, the General Secretary and Comrade General Erich Mielke, head of the Stasi.

Lena's awakening leads her to quickly realize that she has been tricked into being an informer on her Uncle Erich -  a thought that sickens her. The discovery of the bug in the table in the ashtray room, the fact that Lena had been hired to work at the Stasi headquarters despite having a subversive relative, the questions by Jutta about Erich and the fact that she had been allowed to continue visiting her uncle, are all proof of this. This emboldens her to use this knowledge to her advantage. She remembers her uncle's strange remark about his freezer needing defrosting and boldly enters his apartment at great risk to retrieve whatever is hidden there.

One risk leads to another, a phone call from the Stasi office to a West German agent leads to more horrific abuse by Herr Dreck. Lena meets with Herr Gunter Schulmann and agrees to try to uncover what her Uncle had discovered and why the factory her parents were working in was making ammunition in secret.  Lena's courage transforms her into a person of action, willingly to take big risks to uncover the truth about her life in East Berlin and to help a friend escape. However, in the end, the Stasi machine with its death grip on life in the city proves too much and Lena finds herself entangled.

Barker manages to portray many of the evils of socialism in her novel in particular the lack of freedom of speech and of association. These freedoms are so restricted that Lena is even afraid of her own thoughts, building a wall to keep out those inner "subversive" thoughts. Readers can see how living in such a totalitarian environment might make someone afraid of their thoughts, given how the state punishes those who are "subversive". As Lena becomes more aware of her surroundings, she begins to re-evaluate people who appear to be normal, like the blind man in the train station, who she now doubts is truly blind. She finds herself questioning everything she sees and hears. 

The author captures the extensive propaganda that East German citizens were subjected to by the state as well. This is especially evident in the conversation between Gunter Schulmann and Lena when they meet for the first time. For example, Lena believes her country is a peaceful one, only to learn from Herr Schulmann that they are building weapons.

Although there have been several historical fiction novels about the Berlin Wall and life in East Berlin for young adults, The House of One Thousand Eyes manages to accurately portray life in East Berlin. However, this novel does contain several brief descriptions of sexual abuse and oral sex that will be disturbing to young teens. It is uncertain as to why the author included the issue of sexual abuse in a novel that has many, many other themes to explore. Perhaps this kind of abuse was a common tool used by the Stasi although research shows that it was more the mind games they played on their own citizens that was most successful. At any rate, for this reason, this book is not recommended for young teens.

Book Details:

The House of One Thousand Eyes by Michelle Barker
Toronto: Annick Press   2018
340 pp.

A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen

From the author of the Ascendance trilogy, comes a well-written piece of historical fiction about the Berlin Wall. A Night Divided is set in 1961 East Berlin, which is under the control of the Soviet Union.

Eight year old Gerta Lowe lives with her older brothers, fourteen-year old Fritz, ten year old Dominic and her parents in an apartment in East Berlin. Her father, Aldous, is a member of a resistance group fighting for democratic rights.On Sunday, August 13, 1961, Gerta and her family awake to find a fence of barbed wire has been placed between East and West Berlin. Aldous and Dominic, have been in the west for two nights and are now trapped on the west side of the fence.

Their neighbour, Herr Krause who lived next door with his invalid wife, came to their house two nights earlier warning the Lowe's that they should leave for the west while they still were able to do so. People have been quietly disappearing, fleeing to the west and the promise of a better life. The Russians control the eastern half of Germany and the capital city of Berlin, while Britain, America and France control the west.  Gerta's family would have left for the west months ago if her mother had agreed. But Gerta's mother does not want to leave the life they have built in East Berlin, nor her ailing and widowed mother. She is angry that Herr Krause has put these dangerous ideas into her husband's head. But Herr Krause suggests that Aldous go to the west to find an apartment before they leave. Gerta's mama agrees to this and they decide Dominic will accompany Aldous. Now they are trapped on the other side.

Despite the barbed wire, people continue to find their way out - sometimes running over the barbed wire or swimming the canals. To stop people from fleeing, the government erected concrete walls topped with glass shards and watch towers manned by guards. This shocked Gerta and Fritz but their mother encouraged them to accept this and for four years this is exactly what those around them did. But Gerta, now twelve has never stopped noticing the wall. A visit by the Stasi, the German secret police, two years ago, made Gerta and her family nervous. In their hopes to discourage the Stasi from spying on them, their family did everything a good East German family would do.

One day while walking to school with her best friend Anna Warner, Gerta notices her brother Dominic standing "on a platform behind the wall in West Berlin." Overcome with joy, Gerta waves. But her happiness soon turns to dread when she and Anna are accosted by a border guard named Muller. Muller wants to know who Gerta was waving at but she doesn't tell him. At home that night Gerta tells her mama and Fritz about seeing Dominic. Instead of being thrilled at what happened, Mama tells Gerta that she's not supposed to be watching the wall. Later on Fritz and Gerta spend time in the bedroom talking about the wall while playing a Beatles album. Fritz informs Gerta that Anna's older brother, Peter, is planning to escape to the west that night. No one knows but Fritz and the group of students from the west who are planning to smuggle him out in their car.

On the walk to school the next morning, Gerta spies not only her brother Dominic, but also her father. And her father begins behaving strangely, pantomiming a favourite folk song he used to sing to Gerta when she was younger. The part of the song he acts out refers to a farmer working in his garden digging, except her father focuses on the farmer digging with a shovel. All of this leaves Gerta puzzled and struggling to figure out just what her father was trying to tell her. As her friend Anna points out, "He wouldn't have you take the risk just to show you a dance." Soon Gerta determines that her father wants her to dig. But she has no idea why or where.

That night Gerta learns from Mama that Anna's brother Peter was shot trying to escape. Fritz has not returned home from work and now Gerta fears for her brother. They learn from the foreman at his work that Fritz was taken away by the Stasi because they believe he was involved in Peter's escape attempt. The next morning Gerta awakes to see Fritz has returned home but he also reveals to her that their apartment must be bugged because he told no one else about Peter's planned escape. Later when they are away from the apartment, Fritz reveals that they Stasi showed him the huge file they have on their father as well as the file they have on him. He has been branded an "enemy of the state" and this means that Fritz will never be able to attend university nor get a good job. Instead he will be placed into the military. He also tells Gerta that they have a file on her too.

Peter's death breaks apart Gerta and Anna who believes that Fritz helped with his escape attempt. Meanwhile their neighbour, Herr Krause is attacked by the Stasi. When Gerta tries to intervene she is accosted by one of the Stasi but is saved by Fritz who recognizes him as a former classmate. That classmate is now cruel and heartless - an indication of the man Fritz will become if he is forced into the military. Determined to find out more about the idea of digging, Greta manages to send a message in sight of the wall, asking her father where the digging is to occur. Days later she receives a drawing of a building from Anna. It takes Greta time but she soon learns where that building is located; it is now part of the Berlin Wall with the front of the building inside the Death Strip. Knowing this is the place her father wants her to dig, Greta investigates the building, not understanding exactly why her father wants her to dig. She realizes that he wants her to tunnel beneath the Berlin Wall to escape. It will take all of Greta's resourcefulness and courage to undertake this task, one that will place her, her family and those who learn of the tunnel's existence in great danger.

Discussion

A Night Divided  is set in post-war Germany which is not only a country divided but it's capital, Berlin is also divided. Near the end of World War II, the West and Soviet Union had already agreed to divide the city of Berlin, which was the capital of the Third Reich and also its cultural capital. As a result of the Yalta Conference which took place from February 4 to 11, 1945, Germany and Berlin would be divided into four zones that included the Soviet Union, France, Britain and the United States.

Stalin raced Soviet troops to Berlin hoping to conquer the city before the Allied troops arrived. He was likely intent upon capturing the city so as to obtain key German research on the atomic bomb. The race to develop the first atomic bomb was between America, Germany and Russia.

The city itself had already been bombed to rubble by British and American warplanes as well as by the Red Army. Soviet troops entered the city, and on May 2, 1945, Berlin fell and the Germans surrendered to Marshall Zukhov.The Soviet army occupied all of Berlin at first but turned over the areas of the city that were agreed upon earlier to be controlled by the American, British and French. The four powers shared alternating control of the city but over time, relations between the communist Soviets and the West deteriorated. This resulted in the Soviets leaving the arrangement they had with the West and implementing independent control over East Berlin. This was the beginning of the Cold War which started in 1947.

Eventually East Berlin was became the capital of East Germany - the portion of  Germany now under Soviet control. On October 7, 1949, East Germany became the German Democratic Republic (GDR) - a Communist nation. West Germany was formed on May 23, 1949. A year long blockade by the Soviets of West Berlin in 1948 was an attempt by the communists to gain control over all of Berlin. Fortunately they did not succeed.

While life in western portion of postwar Germany began to improve, life in areas occupied by the Communists did not. There were food shortages and few democratic rights. Determined to stop the huge migration of people, many of them young professionals, to the West, the East German government decided to close the border and erect a wall separating East and West Berlin. The East German government began building the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961. Named the "anti-fascist protection wall" the beginnings of the wall were initially erected during the night of August 12th, as a barbed wire fence. A concrete block wall was then constructed. The Berlin Wall was actually two walls separated by a large space known as the "death strip". Determined to leave the repressive regime, many tried to escape to the West. Some were smuggled out in cars, while others tunneled beneath the Berlin wall.

It is in this setting that the events in A Night Divided occur. Since young readers today have no memory of the Berlin Wall or the Cold War, this novel could have benefited from either an Author's Note at the end to provide some detailed context for the story, or a brief prologue introducing the setting of the story. The photographs at the front of the novel showing the Death Strip, the barbed wire fence that was the precursor of the Berlin wall and a map showing Berlin and the wall are wonderful introductions to the setting of the story.

Despite this, Nielsen does a good job of portraying what it was like to live under Communist rule in East Berlin and what the Berlin wall meant to those trapped behind it. Life in the Soviet controlled section of Berlin was not easy. Gerta mentions how people in the east noticed the growing disparity between the communist section of Berlin and West Berlin. "But Russia's promises of a better life under Communism weren't happening. As the west repaired its war damages, ours remained like unhealed scars. Their shops were full, and ours constantly faced shortages. They were growing stronger, while we leaned on Russia like a crutch, pretending to be every bit as strong."

Life in East Berlin is rife with rules and little freedom. After the death of Peter, Fritz determines that their apartment is bugged. They have no freedom to express even their thoughts in the privacy of their own home. Everyone watches everyone else and yet everyone pretends they are not looking. The neighbours become informants in the hopes of benefiting economically and socially. At twelve, Gerta is already keenly aware of this, as evidenced by her behaviour towards Frau Eberhart, who she describes as someone "who patrolled the front of the apartment building better than most of the guards in the watchtowers."

Nielsen also manages to capture the terror the East German Secret Police, the Stasi, inflicted on the people of Berlin and their capacity to completely ruin those who opposed them. The Stasi held detailed files on enormous numbers of East Germans and had no qualms about killing those who opposed communism. Their treatment of people is exemplified by Herr Krause who is eventually murdered by the Stasi. And it is the situation of Herr Krause which eventually convinces Fritz that he cannot remain in East Berlin. Fritz begins to realize that his life in East Berlin will become unbearable, with no hope for a further education or a good job. He knows that once he is forced into the military he will become like his friend Viktor. He will think and act like the Stasi. He's so desperate to get out that he considers swimming the dangerous, fast flowing Spree River. We begin to see why a young person might become so desperate that they would risk their life to escape.

Fortunately, the Berlin wall was eventually dismantled in 1989 after a series of events that began earlier in the year in Hungary. After opening its border with East Germany, refugees began flooding into the country. This led to similar events in Czechoslovakia and more refugees leaving East Germany. Eventually protests brought about the dismantling of the wall, which began on June 13, 1990 and the reunification of Germany.

Overall, A Night Divided is an engaging, well-written story about a significant historical event that had major repercussions for post-war Europe and America. The building of the Berlin Wall was the start of the Cold War and the closing of Eastern Europe behind what was soon to be called the Iron Curtain. It's good to see historical fiction being written about the post-World War II era.

Book Details:

A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen
New York: Scholastic Press      2015
317 pp.