Hidden Yellow Stars is compelling, page-turning, and heartfelt WWII historical fiction.

Hidden Yellow Stars by Rebecca Connolly

Genre/Categories/Setting: Historical Fiction (WWII), Jewish. Resistance. Real-life Heroes. Belgium.

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

My Summary of Hidden Yellow Stars:

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Hidden Yellow Stars. Thanks @ShadowMountain @AustenProsePR for a complimentary e ARC of #HiddenYellowStars upon my request. All opinions are my own.

Andrée Geulen and Ida Sterno risk their lives to secretly defy the Nazis in Belgium and take action to hide as many Jewish children as possible from the Gestapo. This story is based on two real-life heroes.

My Thoughts:

Compelling, page-turning, and heartfelt…

Real-life Heroes

I never tire of stories based on real-life heroes. Andrée Geulen was not a Jew but as a teacher she became concerned about her Jewish students being forced to wear the yellow star and often taken from their parents. Ida Sterno is a Jewish social worker and secretly works with a resistance group, the Committee for the Defense of Jews in Belgium whose purpose is to hide Jewish children from the Gestapo. Ida recruits Andrée. Together, Ida and Andrée and members of the resistance work to smuggle Jewish children to safety. They keep detailed and extensive (coded) records to unite families after the threat has passed. They work against impossible odds and at great risk to their lives.

In 1989, Yad Vashem recognized Andrée Geulen as Righteous Among the Nations. In 2007 she was awarded honorary citizenship of the State of Israel.

Can You Imagine?

I’ve read other stories from WWII in which parents relinquished their children to strangers to keep them safe from the bombing in London or to escape the Gestapo in Nazi-controlled Europe. I can not imagine. It’s also heartbreaking to consider the number of children who were saved but were never reunited with their parents.

Other stories of rescued children during WWII include: The Last Train to London, The Last Lifeboat, The Medallion, The Book of Lost Names, The Winter Orphans.

Light in the Darkness

Just as one single match can overpower the darkest room, a spark of hope and love shines during the darkest and most hopeless of times. Evil cannot overpower the light. We are reminded of this over and over again as authors bring us the stories of real-life heroes. I choose to believe that there will be an ultimate eternal reward for those who care for and safeguard the most innocent victims.

Content Consideration: wartime atrocities, danger to children

Recommending Hidden Yellow Stars

I’m recommending Hidden Yellow Stars for fans of page-turning, well-written, and heartfelt WWII histfic that recognizes the lives of real-life heroes.

Related: Also by Rebecca Connolly, A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice

My Rating:  4.5  Stars

Meet the Author of Hidden Yellow Stars, Rebecca Connolly

Rebecca Connolly is the author of more than three 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 has been creating stories since childhood, and there are home videos to prove it! She received a master’s degree from West Virginia University, and is a hot cocoa addict.

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QOTD:

Do you love stories of real-life heroes?

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