Once Upon a War: The Memoir of Gertrud Schakat Tammen

During the late 1930s, ten-year-old Gertrud Schakat Tammen began keeping a diary as her quiet eastern German town fell under the sway of Hitler's regime. Through her child's perspective, readers see how political upheaval reshapes her family's daily life, from school routines to neighborhood friendships, as the drums of war grow louder. The memoir follows her struggle to make sense of a world that is rapidly becoming hostile and uncertain, capturing both the small joys of childhood and the looming shadows of conflict. Her personal recollections offer a poignant account of how ordinary children experienced the onset of World War II.