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.
My Review:Just when I think I know all the different aspects of a slice of history, I discover something I knew nothing about. The way this author told the story made me feel like I was there observing and there are some hard parts to process. Hidden Yellow Stars is a touching, inspirational, and sometimes heavy story, but one that needs to be told, and it is very beautifully told.
The story follows a couple of women and they come to life on the pages. I can’t even imagine the bravery and determination it took to save the children. I can’t imagine the horrors and abuse suffered to protect them at all costs. My heart pounded in anxiety and fear for them. I was touched and pondered about this difficult part of the past a lot.
Many thanks to Rebecca Connolly, Shadow Mountain Publishing, and Austen Prose for the review copy and for bringing this book to light.
⚠️war-time violence/fear (not too graphic); feelings of peril
*I received a complimentary copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and were voluntarily given.*
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.
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