Hidden Yellow Stars - Rebecca Connollly

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Based on the true story of two World War II heroines who risked everything to save Jewish children from the Gestapo by hiding them throughout Belgium.

Belgium, 1942

Young schoolteacher Andrée Geulen secretly defies the Nazis in Belgium, who are forcing Jews to wear a yellow Star of David. Andrée is not Jewish, but she feels a maternal connection to her students, who are living in constant fear, and decides to take action. No child should have to suffer under such persecution. But what can one woman do against an entire army?

Ida Sterno is a Jewish woman who works with the Committee for the Defense of Jews in Belgium, a clandestine resistance group tasked with hiding children from the Gestapo. She wants to recruit Andrée because her Aryan appearance can provide crucial security measures for their efforts. Andrée agrees to join and begins work immediately by adopting a code name: Claude Fournier.

Together, Andrée and Ida, and their undercover operatives, work around the clock to move Jewish children from their families and smuggle them to safety through the secret channels established by the resistance. As each child is hidden, Andrée commits to memory their true name and history. Someday, she vows, she will help reunite as many of these families as she can.

But with the Gestapo closing in and the traitorous Fat Jacques who has turned from ally to enemy and is threatening to identify and expose any Jew he meets, Andrée and Ida must work even harder against increasingly impossible odds to save as many children as possible and keep them safely hidden—even if it might cost them their own lives.

BOOK REVIEW

There are stories that are fun to read and are a lovely escape, this isn't one of those. This is a story that needed to be told and MUST be read. This is the story of two women, one an atheist and one a non practicing Jew who find themselves wanting to do more in Belgium during the occupation of Germany during WWII. This is a story that could have been easily overlooked.

This is a well-researched, emotionally charged historical fiction based on true people and true events. This is heart pounding in the near misses with keeping little ones safe.

The perception of these two women shows the gamut of what people believed and how a change in an idea could be all it took to save these children. It highlighted the brave people that did the hiding on behalf of those being hunted. Sometimes, it allowed the parents a chance to hide, knowing their children were being saved. Sometimes it meant only a small part of families being saved.

If you don't read any other WWII novel, you should read this one. In remembrance of these two very real ladies and the sacrifice that they made in order to save children. It also very much highlights the organization that they worked with to accomplish this.

Rebecca Connolly was masterful in her research and depictions. I was able to feel the suspense, the fear, the hope, and the relief when there was success. I also felt the despair of these parents who had to let their children go to let them live in a time where their world was turned upside down.

AUTHOR BIO

Rebecca Connolly is the author of more than two dozen novels. She calls herself a Midwest girl, having lived in Ohio and Indiana. She's always been a bookworm, and her grandma would send her books almost every month so she would never run out. Book Fairs were her carnival, and libraries are her happy place. She received a master's degree from West Virginia University.

While doing research for this book, she discovered information about her own family history, including the fates of several unknown family members who perished in the concentration camps of World War II.