Someone Named Eva

Air raids and artillery fire are more frequent. Food is scarce, and the Werners can no longer afford their hired help. They dismiss Helga, the maid, Erich, the butler, Johann, the chauffer, Karl, a groundskeeper, and Inge, the cook. The children are no longer allowed to leave the house, Mutter’s eyes are always puffy, and Herr Werner is away from the house for days at a time. Eva isn’t sure how to think: Would the end of the war mean she could return to her home and family, or are the Werners the only family she has left? She often thinks of the Czech women in the prison camp and traces the shape of Babichka’s pin under her clothes.

One night, Eva overhears Mutter and Herr Werner arguing, and Herr Werner slaps Mutter. Eva sneaks into Elsbeth’s room where Peter is asleep in Elsbeth’s arms. Elsbeth tells Eva that Herr Werner is going into hiding because he believes that Berlin may fall to the Americans and that the Americans will hunt him down for being an important Nazi. The next morning, Eva learns that Herr Werner has taken Peter with him into hiding. Although Mutter claims that they promised to return, Elsbeth maintains that the three of them should leave as well because Herr Werner and Peter will not come back.

Mutter refuses to leave the house, claiming that Hitler will protect them. Elsbeth and Eva begin carrying blankets and food to the small basement. When Mutter refuses to join them, Elsbeth convinces her to help them move the large picture of Hitler from the ballroom. Mutter helps move the photo into the basement and then falls asleep on the bed in the makeshift bomb shelter.

The basement is dark and cold. The girls set up a system once they lose electricity and try their best to pass the time. Eva spends most of her time wondering about her family and what the future will look like for her if the Germans lose the war. Eva decides she can no longer be the German sister Elsbeth loves, and Elsbeth notices a change in Eva.

After three weeks, Russian soldiers break into the house, searching for incriminating documents again Herr Werner. The soldiers force Frau Werner to give them the contents of Herr Werner’s office but keep Elsbeth and Eva in the bomb shelter. Frau Werner does as they ask and feigns ignorance of her husband’s actions. The soldiers leave, firing into the house and destroying whatever they can, including the grand chandelier: “There was one final crash so ferocious that it rattled the bed we were sitting on. It was followed by a tiny thousand echoes of glass shattering” (108).

Due to the Soviet Army’s violent intrusion, Elsbeth decides the trio needs a gun for defense. She and Eva unsuccessfully look for a spare gun in Herr Werner’s stripped-bare office. Next, they hurry to the clearing where Elsbeth’s gun was hidden. The forest is almost destroyed, and they cannot find the gun. Elsbeth is upset, so Eva sends her back to the bomb shelter, hoping to visit the prison camp alone. Elsbeth follows her, however, and accuses Eva of being a Jew. Eva tackles and punches Elsbeth. They fight and tumble down an embankment before returning to the bomb shelter, neither speaking.

The next morning, Eva realizes that she lost Babichka’s pin during the fight. She sneaks out that night and Elsbeth follows her, sorry for causing the fight the previous day. They find the pin together, and Eva tells Elsbeth about her family in Czechoslovakia. Elsbeth doesn’t understand, but Eva feels better just talking about her family. A few days later, they wake up and hear birds chirping. The war is over.

Eva, Elsbeth, and Frau Werner move back upstairs and try to make the house livable. No one goes into Herr Werner’s office. They only have canned food, but Frau Werner refuses to go to the relief camps, claiming that the camps are for the poor and needy, which they are not. Eva is still feeling confused and out of place. She wasn’t taken away from Elsbeth and Mutter, but she knows she cannot be the German child she was before. She feels like she doesn’t belong anywhere.

A few days later, an American man and woman come to the door. They ask Eva if her name is Milada and tell her that her mother is alive and waiting for her in Prague. Frau Werner tries to fight the man and tells the Americans that because she is Eva’s mother, they cannot take her. Eva is shocked to hear her own name and is momentarily torn between her affection for Elsbeth and Mutter and her desire to go home. She decides to go with the Americans, not even collecting her things or saying goodbye to the Werners.

She is escorted on a train to Prague by an American woman named Marcie. Marcie tells Milada that her brother, father, and grandmother died during the war. The Americans believe that Milada’s baby sister, Anechka, is still alive and living with a German family somewhere, although they have not found her yet. Milada is devastated, realizing that the Nazis lied about bringing the men to a work camp and shot them instead. She cries, and Marcie holds her for the last leg of the train ride.

When the train stops, Marcie takes Milada to a school that has become a displaced persons refuge. She warns Milada that her mother may look different, as she has been in a concentration camp the past few years, and leaves Milada with her mother. Mama’s stark appearance shocks Milada. Her hair is now sheared short, and her body is thin and frail. Despite her mother’s gauntness, Milada sees that her mother’s eyes still shine as they once had. Milada and Mama embrace, and Mama repeats Milada’s name like a lullaby, reinforcing Milada’s true Czech identity.

Milada and Mama move into a small flat in Prague with Mama’s cousin. Milada begins taking classes at the local school. She is frustrated with how difficult it is for her to understand the Czech lessons but commits to learning them because she never wants to speak in German again. Milada dreams of her Papa, Jaro, Babichka, and Anechka but cannot speak to Mama about them. Mama tells Milada that they must move on and live in the present.

One day, Milada is working hard to relearn the word “Babichka” and begins to cry. She and Mama finally talk about the things they have lost, and Milada tells Mama about her time in the German facility. Mama only talks about life before the war. She tells Milada about the day she married Milada’s father, the day Milada was born, and the day Milada was baptized. Mama asks Milada to wear Babichka’s pin on the outside of her shirt now: “It helped her to remember the good parts before the war, she said, and not just the bad things that had happened during the war” (124). That night is the first night Milada does not have any dreams.

A few months later, Milada and Mama take a trip to their hometown of Lidice. The entire town is just a field now. Mama and Milada stand in the same place that Milada and Papa used to stargaze, and Milada can almost see the plot where their house stood. As they stand there, a single star appears, and Milada fingers the garnet pin that she now wears on the collar of her shirt. Quietly, she speaks to Babichka, saying that she remembers who she is and has found her way home.