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Escape to West Berlin
Escape to West Berlin
Maurine F. Dahlberg
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004.
Grade Level: 6-8
ISBN 0374309590
$16.00
Synopsis:
During the summer of 1961, Heidi grapples with drastic change, growing up, friendship and loss as she and her family plot to flee East Berlin before the border is closed. Heidi’s perilous flight draws upon her inner courage, adaptability, and stretches the ties of family and friendship.
General Review:
Dahlberg depicts the events and emotions surrounding the rise of the Berlin Wall in the summer of 1961 through the eyes of thirteen-year-old Heidi Klenk, whose life epitomizes change. She struggles to become more independent, relate to friends, and adapt to a new baby in the family. Most disturbingly, she and her family must adapt and make secret plans as the socialist government clamps down on those passing from East to West Berlin, eventually closing the Berlin Wall. Dahlberg’s humanist eyes lock onto the strain in communist society and the divisions created by cold war mentality. Dahlberg captures the angst of families and friends torn apart by the closing, and the teens who consider their futures under both socialist and democratic systems.
Themes: Berlin 1961, Cold War, Family Life, Growing Up, Friendship, Courage
Author Information: Maurine F. Dahlberg is the author of Play to the Angel and The Sprit and Gilly Bucket. An editor for a Navy research institute, she lives with her husband in Springfield, Virginia. (Escape to West Berlin, book jacket)
Discussion Questions: (Standard 3, Benchmark 3):
- If Heidi and Petra lived to see the fall of the Wall in 1989-90 they would be about 41 years old. Do you think they would try to find each other? If so, what do you think the first encounter would be like? What do you imagine they would say to each other? How would they feel about the differences in each other’s lives?
- In chapter 5, Heidi’s mother urges Heidi to make up with Petra. What would have been the consequences of not reconciling versus reconciling?
- At the end of chapter three and the beginning of chapter four, Heidi’s family encounters pressure and threats because Heidi’s father is a border crosser. Discuss the rationale and conditions behind those who posted the two signs about boarder crossers, the angry neighbors, Petra’s plea to Heidi, and Herr Brecht’s actions.
- In pages 73-78, why do you think Heidi’s perception of the “ideal society” was different from her parent’s? What was important in convincing Heidi to agree to her parent’s plan?
Suggested Activities:
- Read true stories of escape and/or attempted escape from East Berlin (or East Germany). Write a report on the context and the mode of the escape using resources such as http://www.wall-berlin.org/index.html and http://www.die-berliner-mauer.de/en/ (Standard 1, Benchmark 5)
- Write a newspaper article interviewing Heidi immediately after she is helped out of the canal (p.174-175). (Standard 5, benchmark 3)
- Watch Night Crossing, the true story of the Strelzyk Family’s escape (1981, Disney Pictures) and create a chart comparing the escape attempts made in 1979 versus 1961. Include transportation mode, clandestine tactics, risk of being caught, danger levels, resources, support from the West, feelings of teenagers and family members who are leaving, conditions in East and West Berlin, reasons for going, etc. (Standard 5, Benchmark 2; Standard 3, Benchmark 2)
- Give the students an outline map of Germany. Have the students draw in and label Berlin, the Muggelsee, the Spree River, Riesen, Dresden, Freital. (Other major landmarks not mentioned in the book, such as Hamburg, Munich, The Danube and Stuttgart etc. can also be plotted) Have the students hypothesize where Dahlberg’s fictitious ‘Alt Mittelheim’ might have been using clues from the book and trace the heroine’s flight from Alt Mittelheim to West Berlin. Calculate the distance. Use a detailed map of Berlin and find the city transportation stops. Hypothesize using clues from the book, where Heidi might have lived in East Berlin and also where her cottage might have been, based on the transportation stops she describes. On an outline map of Berlin, plot these points as well as the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Zoo, the Spree River, the Wedding District, Teltow Canal, and the Tiergarten. Also calculate the distance Heidi Swam across the canal, 50 meters, (p.166) in feet and yards. (Standard 5, Benchmarks 2 & 3; Standard 6, Benchmark 1)
