February Read/Lydia

Title : Number the Stars

Author : Lois Lowry

Publisher : Yearling

ISBN : 0-440-40327-8

Summary :

The story begins at 1943 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Denmark was occupied by Germany at that time. German soldiers were everywhere in the city. The Johansen family and the Rosen family were living in the same apartment. Both parents and children were very close. Annemarie Johansen and Ellen Rosen were 10 year-old-girls who went to the same school.

The Nazis planned to arrest all the Danish Jews and take them away. They called this process “relocation”. The Johansens decided to help the Rosen family, who were Jewish, to escape to Sweden. First, Mrs. Johansen brought her daughters and Ellen Rosen, who pretended to be part of the Johansen family, to her brother Henrik’s house which was located in north coast of Denmark. Next day they prepared an empty casket and pretended that their Great-aunt died. At night, a young couple carrying a sleeping baby, an old man, Mr. and Mrs. Rosen had gathered at uncle Henrik’s house for the fake funeral. Uncle Henrik was going to take them to his boat, it had a hidden place down underneath and there was a room to hide few people, across the sea to Sweden. Suddenly, German soldiers appeared and felt suspicious about not opening the casket. Mrs. Johansen answered them that the doctor said it should be closed, because Great-Aunt died of Typhus. The German soldiers got scared of being infected and left quickly. A few hours later, people split into two groups and walked the path to Henrik’s boat through the darkness.

  When they finally escaped, Annemarie found the paper-wrapped packet that was to deliver to her uncle. She didn’t know the content inside but realized that the packet is of important value. However Mrs. Johansen could not go to Henrik’s boat again, because she had led one group to the boat and had sprained her ankle to get back home. Now Annemarie tried to deliver the packet to her uncle and ran towards her uncle’s boat with a lunch basket that hid the packet at the bottom. She met German soldiers on her way but she pretended to be a little girl taking lunch to a fisherman. Finally Annemarie handed the packet to her uncle and the Rosens went to Sweden safely.

 Uncle Henrik told Annemarie that the packet was a handkerchief. The German soldiers were so angry about the escaping Jews and they had started using trained dogs that was trained to sniff about and find where people are hidden. The Resistance found a special drug when the dogs sniff at it, it ruins their sense of smell. The special drug was spread in the handkerchief.  If Annemarie had not handed the handkerchief to her uncle, the Rosen family could not have escaped to Sweden safely.

After reading :

This story is a historical fiction. The places and political situations are true but the characters are imagined by author. There were a lot of brave people, like the Johansen family, in this book. I think that it is not easy to follow the right decision when our lives are threatened by something, especially war or military forces. Although the neighbors were in serious danger, without any fault, the Johansen family helped them, even Annemarie who was a 10-year-old-girl.