Yellow Star

57 pages • 1 hour read

Yellow Star

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3, Chapter 10 Summary: “Winter 1942”

From January 1942, the Nazis began deporting ghetto residents from Lodz to Chelmno extermination camp as part of their “Final Solution.” These individuals, who bordered trains outside the ghetto, were falsely told that they were going to work elsewhere. Children and adults over 65 were specifically targeted.

“New Worries”

Deportations start. Syvia can hear the train whistle. Papa says that they are taking the people to work elsewhere, but Dora says that she has heard rumors that they are going to death camps; their parents scold Dora for voicing this in front of Syvia.

“Wedding Invitations”

The ghetto occupants joke that the deportation orders, which are delivered to many ghetto inhabitants, are wedding invitations.

“A Happy Night”

Itka visits. She, Syvia, and Dora play dress up with Mother’s clothes.

“No Friends”

Syvia believes that she has never been so sad; Papa saw Itka in one of the train carriages because she and her family received a summons and were deported.

“Silence”

The deportations stop; no one knows why.

Part 3, Chapter 11 Summary: “Summer 1942”

“Bean Counting”

Syvia is eight-and-a-half years old. She and Dora practice fractions as they eat scrawny beans from their vegetable plot.

“Bad News”

Syvia hears her parents fearfully discussing what they should do about the ordered deportation of all ghetto children. She hides under the cover of her parents’ bed.

“Good-bye, Children!”

The Nazis order all of the children to go to daily deportations at midday at the train station. They assure families that the children will have fresh air and plentiful food where they are going.

“Coming for the Children”

Nazis come door to door through the ghetto, ripping children from their parents’ arms and pulling them out of closets and from under beds.

Soldiers shoot parents who refuse to comply.

“A Mother’s Story”

Syvia hears a story of a woman who is told by Nazi soldiers that they need one more child to fulfill their evening’s quota; the mother is told to choose which of her two children to send. She gives them her youngest child, hoping that they will be kinder to a smaller child.

“One Child”

Syvia imagines a situation where the Nazis come to take her, but they remember at the last minute that they are hungry and leave to get dinner.

Dora is old enough to remain.

“They’re Here”

The family is eating dinner when they hear the Nazis shouting in the next street.

Papa takes Syvia, and they go into the night.

“Escape”

Papa runs with Syvia into a dark cemetery. He grabs a shovel and starts to dig a hole among the graves.

“The Hole”

Papa finishes digging and tells Syvia to get into the hole. Syvia starts to scream no, telling her father that she doesn’t want to die. Papa eventually gets into the hole, showing Syvia that it isn’t so bad.

“Hiding”

Syvia climbs into the hole with Papa. After her heartbeat slows down, it is very dark and very quiet.

“Scary Thoughts”

Syvia thinks fearfully of Nazi soldiers at their apartment looking for her, as well as of ghosts and dead people in the cemetery.

“A Bed Fit for a King”

They wake up. Papa jokes that it is a bed fit for kings. He instructs Syvia to stay where she is and tentatively stands and looks around. The white sheet visible in their apartment window means that Nazi soldiers are still around, so they remain in the hole.

“Waiting”

They lie in the hole all day. As the sun begins to set, Dora runs to them and tells them that the Nazis have gone.

“The Others”

Syvia is amazed to see other adults and children climb out of nearby holes.

“While We Were Hiding”

The Nazi soldiers came into the family’s apartment the night before, searching under the bed and in the closets.

Papa says that they will spend more nights under the stars, as the Nazis are planning further raids.

“Good Ears”

Papa tells Syvia that sources are people with good ears; those are the ones who say that the Nazis plan to come back until there are no children left in the ghetto.

Syvia hears the train whistle and thinks of the children who were taken the night before.

“More Nights”

One night while hiding in the cemetery, Papa and Syvia hear Nazi soldiers searching the area. Papa instructs Syvia to run; they sprint to a fence and climb over it.

They continue going out at night to hide in the new places that Papa finds during the day as he is delivering flour, including nooks and staircases. They return home in the morning.

“The Little Dance”

There will be no more deportations and no more night searches. Syvia does a celebratory dance.

“The Bad News”

Syvia learns that the deportations of children are stopping because supposedly there are no more children in the ghetto, although Papa knows of other children who are hidden, like Syvia’s cousin Mina.

“Too Quiet”

With no children, the ghetto is very quiet. Syvia is not allowed outside, as she is not supposed to still be there.

“The New Rules”

Syvia must stay quiet and hidden. Papa doesn’t know how long she will need to do this; he urges her to have hope that life will get better, so she pictures a filling meal and imagines learning to ride a red bicycle.

“Talks with Dora”

Dora tells Syvia that they’re making munitions at the factory. She brings home jokes and anecdotes for Syvia. Dora tells Syvia that the Nazis think that the Jews killed their God.

“Games”

Syvia plays games to pass the time alone in the apartment, like making families of dust motes, lying in different positions to see different views, and practicing the lessons that Dora taught her in her head.

Part 3 Analysis

Resilience in the Face of Hardship is apparent in the use of humor in the ghetto. People joke about deportation orders being called wedding invitations, which recasts a terrifying trip to an unknown location as a joyful event: “Everybody in the neighborhood is calling these papers ‘wedding invitations’ and teasing one another. ‘Have you been invited to the wedding?’ ‘Not yet, have you?’” (66-67). By teasing each other, the terrifying circumstances of the ghetto residents’ lives are made slightly more tolerable.

Papa also uses humor to comfort and reassure Syvia on their missions to hide out in the ghetto as the Nazi soldiers come looking for children at night, such as when they sleep in the hole in the cemetery: “‘Good morning, Syvia,’ he whispers. ‘What a fine night for sleeping in this bed fit for kings.’ I smile a little at his teasing” (85). The effectiveness of humor in relieving anxiety is clear in Syvia’s smile; she is slightly cheered despite the terrifying circumstances. This is demonstrated again as the raids continue. Papa says, “Syvia and I may be spending some more time together under the stars” after he hears that “the Nazis plan to return again and again until they are completely sure all the children are gone” (88-89). Papa tries to make their hiding from the Nazis feel like a pleasant adventure into the outdoors.

Papa and Mother’s ingenuity is also established in these missions; Syvia is successfully hidden from the Nazis—one of only a handful of children out of tens of thousands. They have a method of subtly communicating, with Papa telling Syvia, “Your mother and I arranged that when the Germans are nearby, the sheet will be up. When it becomes safe, Mother will take the sheet down” (85). Furthermore, Papa uses his work of delivering flour during the day to find new hiding places after the Nazis search the cemetery, further demonstrating his resourcefulness and his determination to keep Syvia safe.

For Syvia, the Nazis are akin to monsters from her nightmares. Hiding in the cemetery with her father, she fearfully thinks of the terrors that surround her: “What if the soldiers come looking for me and search and search until they find Papa and me? What if there really are such things as ghosts and dead people that walk around at night?” (83). The fact that she worries about ghosts and zombies in the cemetery highlights Syvia’s young age.

Fear and grief in the ghetto increase as children are taken, and the ghetto becomes “a cage holding parents wild with grief” (93). Although the Nazis assure parents that their children are going somewhere safe, rumors of the death camps circulate. The Nazis’ claims that the deportations are fueled by the need for workers are undermined by the fact that older people and children are prioritized for deportation, as well as in the method of transport: “‘If they need good workers,’ Dora grumbles, ‘why are they crushing hundreds of people into small cars like cattle? So their good workers can be suffocated?’” (66). While the Nazis take advantage of the Jews’ powerlessness, they are unable to mask the logical connections that the people in the ghetto make during the process.

After Syvia’s last remaining friend, Itka, is deported, Syvia grieves; this is evident in the repetition of the word “sadness” in the following quote: “Last night with Itka was so happy but today is the saddest day ever. Sadness. Sadness. Sadness. Papa took me on his lap and told me this: On his way home from work, he passed the train station and saw Itka’s face in one of the windows'' (68). Like with Hava, Itka’s death is implied; the reader understands that the deportations from Lodz were all bound for Chelmno extermination camp, which connects to the theme of Antisemitic Genocide.