“Children With a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe” by Deborah Dwork Essay (Book Review)

The review of the book

Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe is a book that gives insight into the internal lives of Jewish Children during the rise of Nazism under Hitler. The writer vividly highlights the changes that happened within the lives of these children during this period. In her thesis, Deborah argues that despite the humiliation and abuses that the Jewish children lived, they never lost their humanity. They still lived to be productive members of society. To achieve this, the author develops one by one the steps through which these children underwent until they found themselves in labor camps and other death camps. Accordingly, this paper will identify some of the themes that are brought out in this book and the contribution of this book to my understanding of the topic of the Holocaust.

Thesis of the author

To support her thesis, Deborah develops the plot using vivid development of themes that highlight the realities that these children faced during the Nazi reign. One of the themes that are clearly brought out is the theme of persecution of children. In the beginning of the events that could turn out as a massacre of more than 1.5 million children, it was not expected that such great persecutions would come by. The foremost decrees by the Nazi regime completely isolated the Jewish population from the economic realms. As a result, they lost their jobs and hence economic power. Although this edict did not apply to children, its effect on them was pronounced. The resultant standard of living was so low that the children could not access the basic needs and wants that they had enjoyed prior.

While they still contemplated on these decrees, the second wave of edicts swept over the country. These were directly focused on the children. It was a big blow to their social life. These decrees bared children from attending some of their favorite places including ice cream parlors, fun parks, cinema halls and playgrounds. These were places that commanded a big part of their lives. Being banned from attending such places was like being imprisoned. However, the main blow was yet to come. The Nazi regime banned children from attending school. The school was a central part of them. This decree denied them access to the central part of their lives.

As the plot develops, Deborah highlights the children’s life becomes more and more miserable as the Nazi edicts continue to escalate. The children are later forced to stay within their houses. They are restricted from moving beyond their courtyards. Their associations with non-Jewish friends are cut short as the gentile children are forbidden from visiting them/ in addition, they are also forbidden from visiting their non-Jewish friends. Riding bicycles and tram cars becomes a thing of the past. As time passed by, the Nazi persecution increased. Eventually, children were forced to go into hiding. Some of them were forced into ghettos and labor camps where they were murdered mercilessly. A good example is the recounting of Sara Grossman who had been transported from the Ghettos to the Auschwitz concentration camp with her sister, mother-in-law, sister in law and her sister-in-law’s children. According to her, they were ordered to leave the children to their grandmother as they were led to their respective places where they would work henceforth. However, the kids and their grandmother, who were unable to work, were led straight away to the gas chambers.

Themes of the book

The role of women during these tumultuous years has also been brought out as a theme in this book. This can be identified among the wider theme of the Jewish reaction to the escalating persecution. While children were forced into hiding and into labor camps, women did their best by trying to console and keep the children strong. All through, the women became the psychological support for the children who had lost a lot in life. In addition, they took up economic roles that helped them access some money for upkeep.

Evaluation of sources and evidences

An evaluation of the author’s sources and evidence proves the authenticity of the book and also of the Holocaust Deborah Dwork approaches the issue from first-hand evidence and interviews, written memoirs, family photos and letters from people who had undergone and survived the Holocaust. She also uses diaries, family albums and photos from the survivors. This use of primary forms of data collection enables the reader to have a vivid recollection like he was there during the events. It also helps the reader understand the weight of the issue by hearing the people who were affected speak out their hearts.

Author’s point of view

In this book, Deborah Dwork uses a personal approach to the issue. She uses anecdotal examples to highlight the research findings that she had undertaken. In the development of her plot, Deborah uses this personal approach through the use of direct quotations of victims of the Holocaust. She gives a first-person quotation of the interviews, letters, photographs and memoirs. For instance, she gives an account of Magda Magda Somogyi who narrates her encounter with two twins in one of the concentration camps. She narrates how she had to act as a mother to Evichka and Hanka because they had lost both their parents. Instead of giving an account of this in the third person, Kaplan gives it from the first-person point of view by directly quoting the speaker. This point of view successfully plays the role of putting the reader right within the historical context and time and hence recreating the whole scene afresh.

What the book imparts to my understanding of the Holocaust

I have read many books concerning the Holocaust. However, the main topic brought out in this book by Deborah Dwork was a completely new approach to the subject. She brings up the issue of children, the most vulnerable members of society. Through the book, I come to understand the role that children can play. True to the word of the Nazis who thought that children were the future and that they had to be eliminated, I find that children lived to tell the tale. They lived to narrate the story of how they had undergone such a terrible time to the whole world. It is therefore understandable that children are an integral part of society. The book has enabled me to see the way children suffered under the Nazi regime. Initially, I had not considered the issue from a children’s perspective.

My own opinion on the success of the book

Above all, the author wanted to show the suffering undergone by the Jewish children and how these sufferings were created by Nazi policies. This is successfully brought out by the use of first-hand information through interviews, letters, photos and memoirs. Through the first-person narration of their sufferings (as quoted by Deborah), a reader of this book is able to vividly create a mental picture of what the Jewish children in Germany were undergoing. The reader will also identify with the victims and hence have an understanding of what they really underwent. Basing on these, I believe that the book was successful and that the author’s intentions were well brought out.

How the book helps me to understand certain topics

In conclusion, the timeline, step by step narration of the beginning to the escalation of the Holocaust has deepened my understanding of the topic about the reasons that led to the development and escalation of the Holocaust. Through the book, provided every political change that took place in Germany and how Hitler intended to cleanse Germany from other races. In addition, the book has deepened my understanding of the social, economic and political implications of the Holocaust on the Jewish and non-Jewish populations living in Germany during the Nazi era. The deep understanding has been generated by first-hand narrations from victims and eyewitnesses.

Works cited

Dwork, Deborah. Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.