Books for Post-16 students - One Last Summer

Allenstein, East Prussia,-1939.

Charlotte celebrates her 18th birthday with a spectacular ball. About to become engaged to a Count, she has reason to expect a glittering future, secure in the love of her family and friends. Charlotte records her hopes and dreams in her new diary. However, she has not realised that the world is about to be drawn into war and by the end of it Allenstein and East Prussia will cease to exist. Charlotte faces hardship and exile.

Years later, towards the end of her life, Charlotte shares the secrets of her original diary with her granddaughter Laura and together they make a journey to Allenstein, now the Polish town of Olsztyn and into Charlotte’s past. Told through Charlotte’s diary entries and her reflections as an old woman, this book, inspired by the real life experiences of the author’s mother and grandmother, offers a moving history of German, Polish, Jewish and Russian experience and deals with the difficult question of those termed “bystanders “.

It should encourage older students to consider how ordinary German citizens could let a monstrous regime take control of their country, dominate their lives and murder their neighbours. It also shows clearly the consequences of rebellion against the Fuhrer , the treatment of prisoners and the plight of those living in disputed territory.

• Post16_OneLastsummer (PDF document)