The Girl from Guernica, Karen Robards, author; Nancy Peterson, narrator
Blending fact with fiction, the novel begins in 1937, in Guernica, Spain. Marina Helinger with her four daughters, Magrit, Johanna, Luiza, and Sibil, had left both Germany and her scientist husband in Berlin, Germany, and she had moved back home to her birthplace, where she believed she would be happier.
However, Civil War was raging in Spain, at that time, and although it was believed that they would not be attacked, they were wrong. They were attacked, but not by revolutionaries. Francisco Franco had used the German Condor Legion to attack the unarmed and defenseless civilians of Guernica. The incessant and merciless bombing destroyed most of the town, killing many, and among the dead were Marina and Luiza Helinger.
Sibi, the eldest daughter at 17, and her six-year-old sister Margrit, were trapped in a shelter when the building collapsed. They were dug out and rescued by an American Soldier who worked at the American Embassy in Spain. Together, he and his fellow soldiers, continued on to rescue Jo, who was badly injured, as well as their little dog Ruby, all while running from a fire that was consuming everything in sight. Captain James Griffin, had been assessing conditions in Guernica after the attack, and luckily, he had heard Sibi’s voice from under the rubble. Otherwise, they would all have likely died.
Sibi had always accompanied her father, Dr. Helinger, to work, and he had explained everything about his work designing rockets and airplane engines to her. She loved Science and Math, and like a sponge, she had absorbed the knowledge. She knew that the planes that had bombed the town were German. How she handled that knowledge would determine if they lived or died, because the girls were taken to Berlin, to live with their scientist father. Pablo Picasso had created a painting immortalizing the Guernica massacre, and that had enraged Hitler. So, in order to convince the world of Germany’s innocence, regarding the horrific and barbaric attack, Sibi, as a survivor of the attack, was forced to lie and give public statements denying Germany’s involvement. The quiet threat to hurt her family was always there to keep her in line. Dr. Helinger was a member of the Nazi Party, but actually, he only loved the country and his work, not the Nazis.
Soon, World War II began. Sibi’s father was working for the government to develop a super weapon, a rocket that could not be traced or shot down. Rockets had not been forbidden by the agreements made after the First World War had ended in Germany’s defeat. As Hitler’s Thousand-Year Reich flourished, Sibi was in a unique position to act as a spy to sabotage Germany’s war effort. She accompanied her father to work every day, and she worked alongside him, assisting him in developing this weapon. In her capacity as a spy, known as Rolf, she passed information to Griff, known as Annie. She and her family were in grave danger because of her actions, and soon the situation became more dangerous. They were all in terrible danger and must find a way to escape.
In a narrative that is easy to understand and follow, the author has managed to present a pretty fair description of the history and of the war years. However, it feels a bit juvenile, as if it belongs on the shelves in the Young Adult section, to give young readers a palatable introduction to that heinous time period. Many of the scenes seemed contrived and unrealistic. The romantic aspect was charming, but it stretched credulity, as do many of the other events in the book, that while based in history are made up out of whole cloth. The idea that a teenager would be trusted to engage in work that was top secret, alongside her father, stretched the imagination, especially in such a barbaric regime with a megalomaniac at its head and sadistic officers who supported him always present.
I had never actually read about Guernica and had never heard of the meeting referred to as Eureka, so the book did have many redeeming features educationally, if the reader is willing to take the introduction of new facts and explore their origins. The ending was like a fairytale which would bring smiles to many lips but doubt to many others. Even the many rescues required the suspension of disbelief. Still, it was a new approach to that period of time that “will live in infamy” along with the atrocities that were committed by the many countries that descended into “the tenth circle of hell”. In the overall scheme of things, the depravity and brutality of human monsters briefly existed, but even that period of time was too long. They were, thankfully, defeated with the defeat of The Third Reich.