Woman with a Leica
Author: Dimitrij Grčar
Published by: Novum Publishing GmbH (2019)
A camera in her hand.
A war at her doorstep.
And no country that truly wants her.
Woman with a Leica follows Greta Anckermann, a photojournalist navigating the shadows of pre-WWII Europe — mostly in Vienna, with a fateful affair in Paris — her Leica always within reach, the weight of truth tucked into her coat pocket. She changes names like she changes safe houses. Smuggles negatives under her blouse. Betrays causes. Betrays friends. And sometimes, betrays herself.
This is not a spy thriller. It’s a meditation on what it costs to witness history — especially when you’re a woman, and the world wants your silence.
Greta doesn’t shoot to kill.
She shoots to remember.
I Am Greta ...
"Click. Shutter. Silence. Another frame captured. Another secret sealed in silver. The Leica is warm in my hands. My eyes sting. Smoke? Memory? I can't tell anymore.
My name is Greta Anckermann.
I was born in a country that no longer exists.
I chose the lens.
Not because it made me safe — but because it made me dangerous.
I’m not fearless. I’m functional.
I don’t call myself a hero.
I call myself a witness."
Historical Echoes
- Rise of fascism and the annexation of Austria
- Resistance, surveillance, and betrayal in pre-WWII Vienna
- A love affair and political unrest in 1930s Paris
- Women in journalism, propaganda, and espionage
- The camera as witness — and weapon
Themes
- Moral ambiguity: What is truth when survival means lying?
- Female agency in espionage: Used, underestimated, weaponized.
- Photography as memory: A Leica can expose everything.
- Love in wartime: Fleeting, coded, always at risk.
- Language of power: Fascism creeping through intimacy, language, image.
EXCERPT OF THE BOOK
One woman. One camera. One life blurred between history and shadows.
Greta Anckermann is not a name found in history books — but she should be.
A brilliant, elusive photographer turned reluctant spy, Greta’s story is one of survival, manipulation, betrayal — and the terrible cost of bearing witness in the darkest years of 20th-century Europe. From the occupied streets of Vienna to Allied intelligence offices, Greta became both a player and a pawn. Blackmailed by Nazis. Cornered by Allies. Haunted by the past.
But there’s one secret she’s never spoken of.
In the fog of war, Greta became entangled in a daring conspiracy to rob a military convoy transporting gold. The heist succeeded — but ended in murder. Greta hid the truth… and the gold. And she lived with the silence ever since.
In 1955, as Austria regains its independence, Greta’s former friend organizes a controversial photo exhibition — a plea to draw her out of hiding. Among the crowd is his daughter, Patrizia, just eight years old. The images stir something in her: wonder, mystery, obsession.
Thirteen years later, in 1968, Patrizia — now a young journalist — finds Greta in exile. What begins as an interview turns into a reckoning. Greta opens the vault of her memory. Patrizia listens, not just as a reporter, but as the daughter of a man whose hands may not be clean. When Greta finally reveals the truth about the gold, Patrizia is forced to decide: What does justice look like when the truth could destroy everything?
Woman with a Leica is a layered political and psychological novel set against the sweeping backdrop of the Anschluss, WWII, and the Cold War. It’s a story about the thin line between truth and myth, and about a woman who didn’t just survive history — she caught it on film.