Graffiti Knight by Karen Bass (review)

“Leipzig was our prison and had been since the war ended. . . . The Soviets were our wardens, but the Schupos [German police] were our prison guards.” So says sixteen-year-old narrator Wilm Tauber, who is just beginning to piece together how post-war occupation governs his life and prospects, disaffection turns to outrage when he discovers that his older sister, Anneliese, had been gang raped by Soviet soldiers and abandoned by her ex-boyfriend, who is now a rising star in the Schupo force. Wilm and his boyhood buddies had been playing a fairly harmless spy game among themselves, but now Wilm takes it seriously and begins to pull pranks of escalating seriousness against the police and the occupiers, dragging his skeptical but loyal friends into his escapades. A German engineer, assigned to inspect bridges in need of repair or rebuilding, mentors Wilm toward the very real possibility of self-improvement through education, but anger and a stunt gone wrong send Wilm, his chums, and his sister on a run for the border, seeking asylum in the American zone. Bass positions her protagonist at a credibly vulnerable point in his life—old enough for an intellectually mature understanding of the injustices around him, but young enough to rush headlong into action with adolescent impulsiveness. So many World War II stories come to an abrupt halt on VE or VA Day, or segue awkwardly straight into the Cold War; this is a rare and effective exception that pauses to look at the aftermath for vanquished Germans, and to puzzle out who the post-war bad guys really are. A historical note is appended.