Hidden Yellow Stars -- Rebecca Connolly, Hardcover

Based on the true story of two World War II heroines who risked everything to save Jewish children from the Gestapo by hiding them throughout Belgium.

Belgium, 1942

Young schoolteacher Andr馥 Geulen secretly defies the Nazis in Belgium, who are forcing Jews to wear a yellow Star of David. Andr馥 is not Jewish, but she feels a maternal connection to her students, who are living in constant fear, and decides to take action. No child should have to suffer under such persecution. But what can one woman do against an entire army?

Ida Sterno is a Jewish woman who works with a clandestine resistance group tasked with hiding children from the Gestapo. She recruits Andr馥 because her Aryan appearance can provide crucial security measures for their efforts. Andr馥 agrees to join and begins work immediately by adopting a code name: Claude Fournier.

Together, Andr馥 and Ida work tirelessly to move Jewish children from their families and smuggle them to safety through the secret channels established by the Committee for the Defense of Jews. As each child is hidden, Andr馥 commits to memory their true name and history. Someday, she vows, she will help reunite as many of these families as she can.

But with the Gestapo closing in along with the traitorous Fat Jacques, who has turned from ally to enemy and is threatening to identify any Jew he meets, Andr馥 and Ida must work against increasingly impossible odds to save as many children as possible and keep them safely hidden--even if it might cost them their own lives.

Author: Rebecca Connolly
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Published: 03/05/2024
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.30w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781639932344

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 01/01/2024 pg. 39

About the Author
Rebecca Connolly is the author of more than two 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 received a master's degree from West Virginia University.

While doing research for this book, she discovered information about her own family history, including the fates of several unknown family members who perished in the concentration camps of World War II.