Author/Uploaded by Kip Wilson
Dedication Para Bernardo Epigraph Si muero, dejad el balcón abierto. —FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Epigraph Combat Beginnings Growing Up Change Independence Partners Success Extremes Dramatis Perso...
Dedication Para Bernardo Epigraph Si muero, dejad el balcón abierto. —FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Epigraph Combat Beginnings Growing Up Change Independence Partners Success Extremes Dramatis Personae Author’s Note Acknowledgments Selected Sources Glossary About the Author Books by Kip Wilson Back Ad Copyright About the Publisher BRUNETE, SPAIN JULY 1937 THE SPANISH SUN Searing heat bakes the dusty earth rusty vehicles our thirsty bodies as most soldiers seek whatever shade they can snatch in these trenches while others call out for me ¡Gerda! ¡Señorita! trying to protect la pequeña rubia (the little blonde) me but in fact the cacophony of battle energizes me, galvanizes me, pushes me to get every shot I can. NEW CAMERAS I’m on this battlefield lugging around a cumbersome camera and tripod to film motion pictures along with the one he gave me for photographs the Leica and it might seem too much to carry two but I need them both to have any chance of capturing moments like this one. CLOSE-UP Bullets fly artillery booms officers yell soldiers charge and I crouch shoot follow the action closer to the line between us and them also known as the line between life and death. STUTTGART, GERMANY NOVEMBER 1917 NAMES My parents have been Heinrich and Gisela my whole life yet sometimes they still slip up calling the other Hersch or Gittel which is probably why they made sure to give us children good German names Gerda Oskar Karl right from the start. LIGHTING THE CANDLES Friday nights just before sundown we light candles, sing the blessing, share homemade challah all seven of us: me and my mama and papa Mama’s sister, Tante Terra her husband, Onkel Moritz my brothers, Oskar two years younger than me and Karl two years younger than him because family is stronger together. FAMILY LIFE Oskar and Karl tend to clump together like dumplings just added to broth and though Oskar busies himself being the best SEPTEMBER 1925 LOOKING UP The years pass our luck changes our lives change when Onkel Moritz takes on Papa as a permanent employee in his more established delivery business fanciful Papa always dreaming of more and I march into a new year of school like I run the place myself which works not only because I’m smart and ambitious and a little bit wily but also because I’m attractive and coquettish and petite weapons that seem to matter more. Of course it also helps that I wear my otherwise unremarkable brown hair as short as a boy’s (compared to everyone else’s long locks) because nothing boosts a girl’s confidence more than fearlessness. FRIENDSHIP I’ve finally worked my way into the tight-knit fabric of