Yellow Star

Yellow Star

In 1939 Nazis forced all the Jewish residents of Lodz, Poland to
move into a ghetto surrounded by barbed-wire. Guards were taught to
shoot on sight anyone who tried to escape. Starvation and illness
also took a terrible toll. Many people were herded into trains headed
for death camps.
"In 1945, the war ended. The Germans surrendered, and the
ghetto was liberated. Out of more than a quarter of a million people,
only about 800 walked out of the ghetto. Of those who survived, only
12 were children."
Sylvia Perlmutter was one of those twelve. For much of her
adult life she did not talk about her growing up years. Then,
fortunately for us, she confided in her niece, Jennifer Roy, a
published author who decided her aunt's story should belong to the
world. Her first two attempts to write it in different styles didn't
work. Then she made the fortuitous choice of free form poetry told
through the innocent voice of a child.
As the story opens 4-year-old Syvia (Sylvia's childhood name) is
listening to anxious adults. After an attempt to escape to Warsaw,
her family must move to the Ghetto.
"A fence has been built
around
us.
The ghetto is now a cage
With iron wires."
There is very little food. Bitter cold and illness claim malnourished
bodies. There is never safety. The day after a carefree tea party, a
dear friend and her family go by train to a death camp. At one point
her father keeps her safe by staying with her in a shallow hole he has
dug in a cemetary. This is when the Nazis are trying to send all
children to death camps.
"Look! Over there!
From behind a gravestone not far away
a boy walks out.
And there's a little girl holding
The hand of a woman
As they crawl out from behind another stone."
Can you imagine the terror those children must have experienced?
The book's title, Yellow Star, alludes to one of Syvia's
poignant observations:
"Yellow
is the color of
the felt six-pointed star
that is sewn onto my coat.
It is the law
that all Jews have to wear the
Star of David
when they leave their house,
or else be arrested.
I wish I could
rip the star off...
because yellow is meant to be
a happy color
not the color of
hate."
The absolute evil that was the holocaust can be hard to
comprehend. The numbers of innocent people who were killed can
overwhelm our hearts and minds. It is the narrative, the testimony of
someone we can relate to that really stirs our hearts and souls.
Yellow Star is a truly significant contribution to this body of work,
forcing us to never forget, to do our best to make sure...NEVER AGAIN!
On a personal note, sadly, as we see in places like Sudan, ethnic and
racial purging are still happening in the 21st century. In a more
subtle form they are going on in the United States. Only here it's
along the lines of demonizing the poor to justify making their lives
even more precarious. For example there are folks making SNAP (food
aid) more difficult to get. Starvation and illness kill just as
surely as guns.
A great big shout out goes out to people who hunger and thirst and
work for justice. (paraphrasing the Bible here but all major world
religions are on the same page.)
Julia Emily Hathaway


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