A Big Surprise

On February 9th, 1945, Lizzie turned 16 years old and her mother had a surprise for her. It was Marlene! She was going to stay in their garden at night and return to the zoo in the day. Everything was wonderful with Marlene until a German shepherd came. The dog always barked at Marlene and to fight back, she followed him across the garden trumping and moving her ears, but nothing worked to make the dog go away, not even talking to the owner. One night Marlene got so upset that Mutti decided to take her for a walk and Karli and Lizzie joined them, but as soon as they reached the park, the German shepherd appeared and Marlene began to chase him. Mutti tried to chase Marlene, but she was going so fast and so far away, that Mutti couldn’t chase her anymore, she couldn’t even see her. As all that was happening, the air raid began to sound, the bombers had arrived. Mutti told Lizzie and Karli that they had to get to the shelter and that they couldn’t do anything to find Marlene but Karli wanted to find her so he began to run after her. Mutti and Lizzie ran after him and when they caught up with him, bombs began to fall and Dresden was in flames. They ran away as fast as they could from the city like many other people that lived there. As they ran, they heard the sound of shooting, they were killing the animals from the zoo. They kept moving on, maybe not running but walking, until Marlene appeared! It was a miracle! With Marlene, they reached a forest were Mutti told them that the forest was a shortcut to Uncle Manfred and Aunt Lotti’s house. Papi and Mutti had had a big fight with Uncle Manfred and Aunt Lotti but Mutti was sure they would welcome them in their house, because of the bombing. A couple of days later, they reached the house but it looked deserted so they began to look after their Aunt and Uncle. They searched all over the farmhouse and in the stables and didn’t find anything but when they opened the hay barn, there was a man lying there that looked asleep or even dead. Mutti was almost sure that he was an airman from the British army.

“I did sense in her eyes the depth of the grief she was still suffering after the loss of her mother. And without my ever saying anything, I knew she understood all my fears, about Papi, about the bombers that might come any day now, about the war.” (p. 64)

What this quote shows is how Lizzie felt after she had been alone with Marlene a couple of days after her arrival. Maybe, Lizzie had judged her wrong and didn’t give her a chance. When I read this I realized that they both connected and that they had one big thing in common, they felt lonely. However, it is good to know that there is someone that understands you and that you can trust.

“No! We can’t! We can’t leave her. We have to catch her! I’m going after her. You go home if you like. I’m not coming.” (p. 70)

With this quote, we can see how much Karli (that said the quote), loved Marlene. It was very important that Karli reached the shelter before the bombs began to fall but he wanted to find Marlene first and bring her to safety. And even though one of his legs limped, Karli ran as fast as he could after Marlene.

What I think is going to happen next in the book is that the man in the hay barn is going to wake up and stay in the farmhouse as well as Karli, Lizzie, Mutti, and Marlene. I think that Uncle Manfred and Aunt Lotti are not at home because they wanted to escape from the bombers even though the bombers were only going to bomb the city. And although the family is passing through a hard time, Marlene seems to be helping them to pass through the pain.


I found this quote from Martin Luther King which I think connects very well to this part of the book because Marlene, Mutti, Karli and Lizzie had to walk day after day without eating, drinking water, and even without sleeping.