Connolly, “Hidden Yellow Stars” (Reviewed by Amanda Ray)

Review
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Title:   Hidden Yellow Stars
Author:  Rebecca Connolly
Publisher:  Shadow Mountain
Genre: Historical Fiction, WWII
Year Published:  2024
Number of Pages:  304
Binding: Cloth
ISBN: 978-1639932344
Price:  26.99

Reviewed by Amanda Ray for the Association of Mormon Letters

Rebecca Connolly’s latest book, Hidden Yellow Stars, revolves around two women – based on real women – who acted as social workers hiding Jewish children in Belgium during the Nazi occupation. Many readers are likely familiar with the story of Anne Frank and have some frame of reference for this kind of story. Since this real story involves what ended up being thousands of children who were rescued and hidden, it brings with it even more complications and heart swells.

One thing that becomes immediately apparent in Hidden Yellow Stars is how devastating and conflicting this was for the parents who wanted their children to live but also knew they may not see each other again. Each chapter is like a vignette – an interaction between one of the main characters and the child or children under their current charge as they whisk them to a new home with a new name and identity for the duration. The heartbreak the parents feel as they say goodbye to their children for possibly the last time. The confusion and fright the children have as a strange but friendly woman takes them away from their home. The strain of the social workers as they complete another mission, hoping the children will continue to be safe. Despite the bleakness of the overall story, it’s also a reminder of humanity and love through tribulation.

The book also brings up other moral concerns and conundrums, such as when a lice outbreak at a school harboring Jewish children was blamed on the Jewish children when they had in fact not been allowed to properly wash in the first place. Or when a mother changes her mind about letting her youngest child go into hiding and then she and her youngest disappear and no one is certain if they were picked up by the Nazis or not. Or allowing a child to see his last remaining relative for a few minutes as everyone else had been taken to a concentration camp.

As the book progresses the reader senses the danger rising as the local authorities become more desperate to find Jewish families, and some children have to be moved very quickly. Some of the secondary characters are compromised, and the network seems to get smaller as well more resolute as the war progresses. The tension rises the further into the story you get, slow and steady, while you wait for the other shoe to drop. Hidden Yellow Stars is a compelling addition to the genre of World War II and Holocaust-adjacent stories.