Part 2: Chapters 7 and 8 Summary and Analysis

Gerda and Ilse get to stay together and travel by truck to Marzdorf. Both girls are terrified. They see no allied bombers flying above as they journey on to their new location. They are greeted in Marzdorf by a blond woman who is wielding a bull whip. After their check-in, they are heralded off to their new quarters. The girls who are already encamped immediately start asking where they are from and if they might know their friends or relatives. After a fitful sleep, Gerda is awakened by the angry and profane words of Frau Aufsicht, who escorts the girls back and forth to work. The loathsome blond woman with the whip selects several girls to pull her around in a child's wagon, cracking the whip at their backs.

Gerda finds out why the flax detail is...