Clarification

Now we know that the author had done her research and maybe the winning one meant he had won when he had died. Herr Klaus died and so he had escaped East Berlin. This helps you fully understand that although a person has died it doesn't mean that they didn't escape, it just means that the way they did it signified that they had won and taken the victory for being freed from East Berlin into a better place. Herr Klaus dying signified another way of escape in the book. A way of escape that involved death but still resulted in happiness and freedom which anyone would have wanted if they were stuck behind a cold grey wall threatened by every word they say or thing they do.

This is where I got my info. This helped me realize how Gerta felt. That she was in a zoo. It's terrible that this actually happened. Many people felt as bad as Gerta did. Imagine people watching you like that. You would have felt scared or uncomfortable and If you put yourself in her shoes you would feel like that too. The author is connecting this to a real world situation that you can relate to so you can more easily put yourself in the shoes of Gerta or anyone that was trapped behind the wall in East Berlin, knowing they could do nothing about it.

Knowing this about the Stasi, I felt more empathy towards Gerta when she was in the tunnel and when she was building the garden because you could feel more empathy towards her knowing the Stasi were the worst and most feared people in the East German communist government, but if the Stasi's weren't hated or feared but in fact they were loved and cared for, I would have not felt petrified like Gerta or Fritz when the Stasi's were around or spoken about. I wouldn't have connected with the book or understood it like I did when I learned the truth behind the Stasis

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