Hidden Yellow Stars by Rebecca Connolly (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

Title:  Hidden Yellow Stars

Author:  Rebecca Connolly

Narrated by:  Caroline Hewitt

Publisher: Shadow Mountain

Length: Approximately 9 hours and 59 minutes

Source: Purchased from Amazon.com.  Thank-you Shadow Mountain and Austenprose for the Review copy of the physical book.

 

Would you risk your life to save another?

Hidden Yellow Stars by Rebecca Connolly is based on the true story of two women who hid Jewish children throughout Belgium during WWII to save them from the Gestapo. Andree Geulen is an aethest who was raised Catholic.  She was a teacher who did not like the treatment of the Jewish children in her classroom.  She teams with Ida Sterno, a non-practicing Jewish woman who works for the Committee for the Defense of Jews (CDJ) in Belgium. Will they be able to keep their own lives as they save the lives of others?

My thoughts on this book.

·       Hidden Yellow Stars is an emotional read.  It was so hard for parents to give up their children without knowing what the future will hold.  How will they ever be reunited?

·       The novel was suspenseful with many near misses as the children are taken away for safety. 

·       This book was thought provoking as I kept thinking about if such a thing happened in modern times, what would I do?  So many Belgian families helped out others during this terrible time at great risk to their entire family.  I would hope that I would do the same.

·       Hidden Yellow Stars is told through alternative view points of either Andree or Ida.  I thought it was a good way to get different perspectives.

·       Quotes at the start of the chapters included some particularly vile lines about Jews from Nazi childrens books.  I can’t believe they were in children’s books.

·       There was a great afterword and author’s note at the end of the book about the real history.  Three thousand children were hidden in Belgium during WWII.

·       I really enjoyed getting to know the stories of Andree Geulen and Ida Sterno and the important work that they did.  This is a perfect read for Women’s History month.

·       Andree Geulen’s ability to remember every child was amazing.

·       As I’ve been doing lately, I started reading this book physically, but then switched over to audiobook as I had a lot driving time for work.  Both ways are a great way to enjoy this book.

Overall, Hidden Yellow Stars finally brings to light the story of two WWII heroes that I had never heard about before, Andree Guelen, and Ida Sterno.  It’s a story that you will not soon forget.

Author Rebecca Connolly also had in the author's note how she was able to find out her own family history through writing this book which was inspiring.

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.

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.