Gerdas' Determination

            Gerda is going through things that most of us today can’t even imagine what they would be like. Her biggest problem is dealing with the fact that her family is split. She has guilt because she promised her father that she would stay with her mother at all costs. Whenever she gets a letter from him he asks why she had left her mother. Unfortunately, Gerda never gets to tell her father the answer because the Germans kill him. Gerda is also writing to her brother Arthur. She notices that her brothers’ writing is not the same, and that it looks as though he is in pain when writing (133). When she receives a letter from him she gets a sense of reassurance (134). However, this was the last letter she ever got from Arthur. She said that he, “Sensed it would be,” his last message, and that maybe he, “Paid for writing it with life itself” (Klein 134).         

            She and many of the other girls are then moved to another camp. This camp is much worse than the camp they were just at. The woman in charge carries a whip, and uses it to motivate the girls to work (145). While Gerda is cleaning parts of a loom a worker tries to bribe her to have sex with him. When she refuses he says that she will be sorry (148). And it turns out to be that she is. She is put to work unloading flax in the daytime and at night she unloads coal from the trains. This constant work causes her to become physically and mentally exhausted. She even thinks of committing suicide by jumping in front of a train. Finally they are moved to another camp where she is with her friends from the previous camp. Gerda just learns to buckle down when things get tough. She always remembers the promise that she gave to her father, and strives to keep it even when times get rough. I know that most people couldn’t work day and night for four days straight. It takes a dedicated individual that wants to live to keep on going, and that is exactly what Gerda is.