Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe

The Nazis' murder of 1.5 million Jewish children is the focus of this pioneering study. Expelled from school, forced to wear the yellow star, Jewish children in German-occupied Europe had their family lives shattered by anti-Semitic legislation prior to the outbreak of war. Later some hid in attics or forests; others concealed their identities but remained visible, constantly threatened by starvation, disease or selection for the gas chambers. Yet, Yale scholar Dwork demonstrates, Jewish children created their own mental space, where play, love and relationships continued amid the evil and horror. Tapping letters, diaries, drawings and oral histories of survivors, Dwork adds a poignant new dimension to Holocaust studies. (Apr.)