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I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust
Inge Auerbacher's childhood was as happy and peaceful as any other German child's - until 1942. By then, the Nazis were in power, and she and her parents were rounded up and sent to a concentration camp. The Auerbachers defied death for three years until they were freed.
This story allows even the youngest middle reader to understand the Holocaust.
This story allows even the youngest middle reader to understand the Holocaust.
87 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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March 20, 2022
Inge Auerbacher was only three years old,in 1938, when the massive pogrom called Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass took place.
At the age of seven she was sent to Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.
In this incredible little book, Auerbacher tells of her experiences of being a little girl in Terezin concentration camp, one of the few young children who survived the death camps.
As she recounts:
"Of fifteen thousand children imprisoned in the Terezin concentration camps in Czechoslovakia, between 1941 and 1945, about one hundred survived. I am one of them. At least one and a half children were killed in the Nazi Holocaust. The reason most of these children died is that they were Jewish".
Auerbacher takes the horror of these years, and imparts a message of hope. She has created an account for young readers of her experiences, in a book filled with moving poetry and with the aid of haunting illustrations by Israel Bernbaum. There are also several photographs of her home town and of Inge as a child and her family life.
Auerbacher explains that the silent voices of the innocent children who died in the holocaust must be heard, and that is why felt compelled to trace the historical events that made this great evil possible and to tell her own story.
The author talks about her home town, Kippenheim, a village in southern Germany, where she was born in 1934.
She recounts the iddylic existance of her family and community in Kippenheim, until the horrific events of Kristallnacht.
She traces the roots of anti-Semitism for young readers, and summarizes the rise of Hitler, and the holocaust, before talking about her own story.
"We still feel the pain and we weep.
This nightmare will not let us sleep.
A page in history; one must learn.
Yesterday us, and tommorow your turn?"
She talks of her experiences of being forced to wear the yellow star at the age of six years old, the harsh circumstances of deportation, and the horrific conditions for children in Terezin in crowded and filthy cells infested with rats, mice, fleas and bedbugs, and of the other children who she befriended in the camp, such as Ada, a German Jewish child who longed to go to the Land of Israel, as did so many hundreds of thousands of Jews trapped in the Nazi inferno.
Ada taught her a song about the Holy Land, and promised Inge that they would soon go to there, "Just hold on a little longer" she used to say.
Ada's dream never came true-she died at the age of nine in Auschwitz.
Another friend was Ruth, a beautiful blond little girl of mixed Jewish and Gentile blood, who was brought up as a Christian, and who loved to draw. Ruth died in Terezin because her Jewish heritage, even though she never considered herself Jewish.
The final two chapters are about Inge's liberation from Auschwitz, and her hopes and afterthoughts:
She closes with a wonderful poem about the horrors and deaths, and the hopes and dreams of those who survived and their descendants entitled NEVER AGAIN:
"Minds were dulled by bombs of hate,
Only the hero cared about our fate,
We saw the truth, it began to unfold,
You may kill the body but never the soul.
Here we are with honour and pride,
a new generation at our side,
the silent voices join us today,
Never, never again we hope and pray".
At the age of seven she was sent to Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.
In this incredible little book, Auerbacher tells of her experiences of being a little girl in Terezin concentration camp, one of the few young children who survived the death camps.
As she recounts:
"Of fifteen thousand children imprisoned in the Terezin concentration camps in Czechoslovakia, between 1941 and 1945, about one hundred survived. I am one of them. At least one and a half children were killed in the Nazi Holocaust. The reason most of these children died is that they were Jewish".
Auerbacher takes the horror of these years, and imparts a message of hope. She has created an account for young readers of her experiences, in a book filled with moving poetry and with the aid of haunting illustrations by Israel Bernbaum. There are also several photographs of her home town and of Inge as a child and her family life.
Auerbacher explains that the silent voices of the innocent children who died in the holocaust must be heard, and that is why felt compelled to trace the historical events that made this great evil possible and to tell her own story.
The author talks about her home town, Kippenheim, a village in southern Germany, where she was born in 1934.
She recounts the iddylic existance of her family and community in Kippenheim, until the horrific events of Kristallnacht.
She traces the roots of anti-Semitism for young readers, and summarizes the rise of Hitler, and the holocaust, before talking about her own story.
"We still feel the pain and we weep.
This nightmare will not let us sleep.
A page in history; one must learn.
Yesterday us, and tommorow your turn?"
She talks of her experiences of being forced to wear the yellow star at the age of six years old, the harsh circumstances of deportation, and the horrific conditions for children in Terezin in crowded and filthy cells infested with rats, mice, fleas and bedbugs, and of the other children who she befriended in the camp, such as Ada, a German Jewish child who longed to go to the Land of Israel, as did so many hundreds of thousands of Jews trapped in the Nazi inferno.
Ada taught her a song about the Holy Land, and promised Inge that they would soon go to there, "Just hold on a little longer" she used to say.
Ada's dream never came true-she died at the age of nine in Auschwitz.
Another friend was Ruth, a beautiful blond little girl of mixed Jewish and Gentile blood, who was brought up as a Christian, and who loved to draw. Ruth died in Terezin because her Jewish heritage, even though she never considered herself Jewish.
The final two chapters are about Inge's liberation from Auschwitz, and her hopes and afterthoughts:
She closes with a wonderful poem about the horrors and deaths, and the hopes and dreams of those who survived and their descendants entitled NEVER AGAIN:
"Minds were dulled by bombs of hate,
Only the hero cared about our fate,
We saw the truth, it began to unfold,
You may kill the body but never the soul.
Here we are with honour and pride,
a new generation at our side,
the silent voices join us today,
Never, never again we hope and pray".
May 20, 2023
I was aware of Terezin (Theresiendstadt), the fortress in Czechoslovakia used by the Nazis as a propaganda “model� ghetto/concentration camp during World War II; it was the setting for Kathy Kacer’s young adult novel
Clara’s War.
However, Inge Auerbacher’s
I am a Star
is the only memoir I’ve ever read by someone who survived the place. In 1942 when she was seven years old, Auerbacher was transported there with her mother and father, a disabled, decorated World-War-I German-Army veteran. Inge and her parents remained there until the end of the war in the spring of 1945.
It is a rare thing to read the memoir of a Jewish child who was able to stay with her parents for the entire war. It’s an equally rare thing for all of them to have survived. They almost did not. In 1945, the Nazis, well aware that they were losing, rushed to end the lives of all the Jews they had in their concentration and labour camps. Terezin had mostly been a transit camp only, a place where Jews were held until an extermination camp could dispose of them. It was not equipped with gas chambers and crematoria. The Germans rushed to build these at Terezin in early 1945, but the Soviet army got there first, liberating the camp before the instruments of destruction could be used. By that point—in early May of 1945–after lobbing grenades at inmates and shooting the few they could, many of the guards had already run off. Just a little before the liberation, Inge’s best friend, Ruth, and her parents (who for two years had shared a room and bunks with Inge’s family) were on the last transport from Terezin to the death camps. Ruth was of mixed Christian and Jewish background. Her father was Christian, and the girl had been raised with no knowledge of her Jewish heritage. It made no difference. She was killed by the Nazis.
Auerbacher’s memoir provides an account of her life before the war—when the German Jewish population was harassed, abused, and submitted to harsh and humiliating restrictions—and her experiences during it—when her family was transported to Terezin, where she became extremely ill with several childhood diseases due to dire conditions and deprivation. The book has a very different feel from many autobiographical works about children’s experiences during the Holocaust. I think this can be attributed to three things. First, Inge’s parents were always there, caring for her physically and supporting her emotionally. Second, Inge had other longer-term, stable relationships and friendships during her time in Terezin. Finally—and this may seem a small thing—Inge was able to keep her beloved doll, which gave her much solace. In her memoir, she actually includes a poem that testifies to the importance of the doll in her life.
Unlike many other Holocaust memoirs for older children, Auerbacher’s spends a few chapters on the conditions in Germany leading up to the war. The author discusses Germany’s humiliation after World War I, the country’s failing economy, the inflation and widespread unemployment, the resentment and scapegoating of Jews, and the rise of Hitler. She identifies the führer’s ideology as being based on two principles: (1) Lebensraum, room for the expansion of the superior Aryan race and the right to invade other countries to get that room; and (2) Judenfrage, the complete elimination of the polluting Jewish race. The increasingly restrictive and inhumane measures against the Jewish population are briefly but well documented by Auerbacher. While this information may be dry reading for a younger audience, it provides valuable context.
I am a Star contains a great many black-and-white photographs. The historical ones help young readers to better visualize significant places in Inge’s childhood, while the family photos give them a sense of Inge’s personal relationships, particularly her closeness to her maternal grandparents with whom her family lived for a time. These family photos make Inge’s grief over the loss of her grandmother more real and palpable. Her mother’s mother was transported east to Latvia, where she was executed by Hitler’s Einsatzgruppen, the death squads who operated before “The Final Solution� was instituted. Auerbacher includes a poem written in memory of this beloved family member.
Along with the photos and text narrative, the author includes several of her own poems about her wartime experiences. While they convey important factual details, I cannot say that I appreciated the poems. Many consist of lines and lines of awkward couplets. The syntax is often clumsy, and the rhyming is trite. I really wish Auerbacher had stuck to prose. Having said that, I suspect children who read the book would not be as critical as I am.
At the end of the memoir, Auerbacher includes a useful timetable of key events and a list of books (now rather dated) for further reading. Though dry in places, I am a Star, is a valuable and informative book about the rise of Nazism in Germany, the Holocaust, and one girl’s experience in Terezin.
Rating: 3.5
It is a rare thing to read the memoir of a Jewish child who was able to stay with her parents for the entire war. It’s an equally rare thing for all of them to have survived. They almost did not. In 1945, the Nazis, well aware that they were losing, rushed to end the lives of all the Jews they had in their concentration and labour camps. Terezin had mostly been a transit camp only, a place where Jews were held until an extermination camp could dispose of them. It was not equipped with gas chambers and crematoria. The Germans rushed to build these at Terezin in early 1945, but the Soviet army got there first, liberating the camp before the instruments of destruction could be used. By that point—in early May of 1945–after lobbing grenades at inmates and shooting the few they could, many of the guards had already run off. Just a little before the liberation, Inge’s best friend, Ruth, and her parents (who for two years had shared a room and bunks with Inge’s family) were on the last transport from Terezin to the death camps. Ruth was of mixed Christian and Jewish background. Her father was Christian, and the girl had been raised with no knowledge of her Jewish heritage. It made no difference. She was killed by the Nazis.
Auerbacher’s memoir provides an account of her life before the war—when the German Jewish population was harassed, abused, and submitted to harsh and humiliating restrictions—and her experiences during it—when her family was transported to Terezin, where she became extremely ill with several childhood diseases due to dire conditions and deprivation. The book has a very different feel from many autobiographical works about children’s experiences during the Holocaust. I think this can be attributed to three things. First, Inge’s parents were always there, caring for her physically and supporting her emotionally. Second, Inge had other longer-term, stable relationships and friendships during her time in Terezin. Finally—and this may seem a small thing—Inge was able to keep her beloved doll, which gave her much solace. In her memoir, she actually includes a poem that testifies to the importance of the doll in her life.
Unlike many other Holocaust memoirs for older children, Auerbacher’s spends a few chapters on the conditions in Germany leading up to the war. The author discusses Germany’s humiliation after World War I, the country’s failing economy, the inflation and widespread unemployment, the resentment and scapegoating of Jews, and the rise of Hitler. She identifies the führer’s ideology as being based on two principles: (1) Lebensraum, room for the expansion of the superior Aryan race and the right to invade other countries to get that room; and (2) Judenfrage, the complete elimination of the polluting Jewish race. The increasingly restrictive and inhumane measures against the Jewish population are briefly but well documented by Auerbacher. While this information may be dry reading for a younger audience, it provides valuable context.
I am a Star contains a great many black-and-white photographs. The historical ones help young readers to better visualize significant places in Inge’s childhood, while the family photos give them a sense of Inge’s personal relationships, particularly her closeness to her maternal grandparents with whom her family lived for a time. These family photos make Inge’s grief over the loss of her grandmother more real and palpable. Her mother’s mother was transported east to Latvia, where she was executed by Hitler’s Einsatzgruppen, the death squads who operated before “The Final Solution� was instituted. Auerbacher includes a poem written in memory of this beloved family member.
Along with the photos and text narrative, the author includes several of her own poems about her wartime experiences. While they convey important factual details, I cannot say that I appreciated the poems. Many consist of lines and lines of awkward couplets. The syntax is often clumsy, and the rhyming is trite. I really wish Auerbacher had stuck to prose. Having said that, I suspect children who read the book would not be as critical as I am.
At the end of the memoir, Auerbacher includes a useful timetable of key events and a list of books (now rather dated) for further reading. Though dry in places, I am a Star, is a valuable and informative book about the rise of Nazism in Germany, the Holocaust, and one girl’s experience in Terezin.
Rating: 3.5
March 26, 2009
Oh my, this was so good! Well actually, it's disgusting the way they were treated, but inspiring the way Inge and so many thousands of other children not only found positive things in their lives but did more, passed the ultimate test. They survived, and for that I am awed by every child who did, and completely aghast for every one who did not. What happened in concentration camps was pure evil.
Read
October 7, 2011"I am a star : child of the Holocaust" was written by Inge Auerbacher. The purpose they had for this book was to inform you. It was written not only to tell you what the Holocaust was about but also to inform you on just one persons story during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a very serious and horrible time. It was a time period where people who were Jewish were taken away form their family and sent to these camps. At those camps they would kill you in different ways. The most common was the gas chambers.
The theme of the book would be don’t take life for granted. You might think just because your mom wont let you buy a dress your life sucks. The main character of this book Inge wouldn’t care about a dress. She cared about her family and their lives. Since her and her family were Jewish they got kicked out of their house and taken to concentration camps. Her only thought was please let me and my family live. Someone out in the world will always have it worse then you. Even if you think it is the worst thing I don’t think anything would compare to what the Jews went through during the Holocaust.
This book was a description. Inge wanted us to feel like we were in the Holocaust. She explained the time period in where the Holocaust did take place. She gave descriptions what it was like to sleep at the concentration camps. She told us exactly what they ate and how it tasted. When I was reading this book I could feel her pain when she had to go to the concentration camp. She described with the perfect amount of detail to make it feel like I was apart of the Holocaust.
My opinion over the book is I enjoyed it. It told one girls story about the Holocaust. I liked how she described the little details like what her dolls ribbon color was that she held with her closely at the camp. I also liked how the book included some pictures of what was going around at the concentration camps. The only thing I disliked was that the Nazi soldiers actually did this. Of course I can’t change that so it really isn’t a dislike towards the book. I would change how they put in words in different languages beside the English words. I also would take out the pages that have random poetry.
The theme of the book would be don’t take life for granted. You might think just because your mom wont let you buy a dress your life sucks. The main character of this book Inge wouldn’t care about a dress. She cared about her family and their lives. Since her and her family were Jewish they got kicked out of their house and taken to concentration camps. Her only thought was please let me and my family live. Someone out in the world will always have it worse then you. Even if you think it is the worst thing I don’t think anything would compare to what the Jews went through during the Holocaust.
This book was a description. Inge wanted us to feel like we were in the Holocaust. She explained the time period in where the Holocaust did take place. She gave descriptions what it was like to sleep at the concentration camps. She told us exactly what they ate and how it tasted. When I was reading this book I could feel her pain when she had to go to the concentration camp. She described with the perfect amount of detail to make it feel like I was apart of the Holocaust.
My opinion over the book is I enjoyed it. It told one girls story about the Holocaust. I liked how she described the little details like what her dolls ribbon color was that she held with her closely at the camp. I also liked how the book included some pictures of what was going around at the concentration camps. The only thing I disliked was that the Nazi soldiers actually did this. Of course I can’t change that so it really isn’t a dislike towards the book. I would change how they put in words in different languages beside the English words. I also would take out the pages that have random poetry.
June 19, 2020
Good book
This book was rather short and quick to read but it was still really good. I'm glad people had the courage to come forward and tell their story
This book was rather short and quick to read but it was still really good. I'm glad people had the courage to come forward and tell their story
December 16, 2009
The thing I liked about I Am A Star is the background it gave. It didn't go in depth about any one thing but there wwas vague background information that just isn't given in the average Holocaust book. This makes sense because since this background info doesn't change, readers would be forced to read over and over the same info. But, I found out a few things while reading this that I just didn't know. I wish I could remember a few examples but I can't. These were minor things, things I couldn't believe I didn't know once I thought about it. I think it's great to give this sort of info out to the readers targeted with this book. When I started reading Holocaust books I didn't read anything with any sort of background like this has and I wish I had.
I still don't think I'd hand this to any kids I know in the age bracket targeted here but maybe a middle teen possibly.
I still don't think I'd hand this to any kids I know in the age bracket targeted here but maybe a middle teen possibly.
February 3, 2010
I always enjoy Holocaust books (OK, maybe that sounds twisted). But I love to read about how people overcome such unimaginable difficulties. But I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book--it's not very well written.
April 30, 2025
The book I’m reading is called “I am a star� by Inge Auerbacher. I thoroughly enjoyed the short book. I really liked the book; it was easy to read and an excellent storytelling. I always like looking at old pictures from the book that showed their lives either before or after the war. It provides insight into the plight of children during these dreadful historical periods. Inge shows with pictures where she writes to help the young reader visualise like me at the time and the conditions she lived in. Poetry has been sprinkled throughout. The first begins with anti-Semitic history, acknowledging the Nazi toll on non-Jews and their resistance to the continued atrocities. Between 1941 and 1945, 15,000 children were imprisoned in the Terezin concentration camp, only one hundred survived. I am one of them. I was born on December 31, 1934, in a village called Kippenheim in Germany. Kippenheim is situated at the foot of the Black Forest, close to the borders of France and Switzerland. Jews had lived in Kippenheim for at least two hundred years.. She is one of the lucky few younger whose families survive.
March 9, 2022
4.7645982⭐s. I liked the book, it was good. I thought it was interesting to read from the point if view of someone who actually went through the events. It was also interesting to have pictures, and poems mixed in to add to the storyline. The only reason it missed 0.2354018⭐s was because it was short, the author had help writing it (not necessarily a bad thing) and it focused more on her specific life, just throwing in the big things that were going on briefly, if they had to do with her life. But, as I said this was a good book and I enjoyed reading it. Good as a school guided book club book.
January 24, 2025
Šílený, přesně jak jsem čekala. O koncentračních táborech je spoustu knih a na téhle se mi líbí že je stručná a jasná. Četla jsem to německy a dalo se tomu rozumět. Paní Inge jsem měla šanci potkat a slyšet její vyprávění živě a musela jsem si i přečíst její knížku. Doteď nechápu že jí bylo 7 let, když byla deportována do Terezína. Je fakt zázrak, že jsou na světě stále lidé co přežili koncentrační tábory a vypráví o tom. I když vás nezajímá historie, tak o tomhle by něco měl vědět každý, protože je to část historie na kterou se proste zapomenout nedá. Doporučuju přečíst, má to 100 stran a dozvíte se jak vypadal život Židů před 2.sv válkou a v Terezíně.
March 1, 2012
Inge Auerbacher, the author, was a little girl during the Jewish Holocaust. In 1942, when Inge was seven years old, she and her family were sent to the concentration camp Terezin in Czechoslovakia. The accurate story, with authentic photographs and simple illistrations that get the point across, is not very thrilling or entertaining. However, it does give readers a good objective and inside view of life in the Jewish concentration camps. The readers will leave with a fair amount of knowledge about what a Jewish family may have had to go through, diesease epidemics, starvation, and the fear that every minute could be your last, to survive in a concentration camp. Along with clear and organized details, the author wrote simple yet eloquent poems about certain experiences during her trials of that era. This format and style helped me to better understand what the author went through. The book was a little boring, but readers will leave it knowing more about the challenges a Jewish family faced during the Holocaust.
January 15, 2024
As much as I know about this time in history, it still fascinates me a great deal. I think no matter how much time passes we will always say "how could this happen?" And Inge still asks the same question, though she gives a great explanation as to "why" or how. Despite it's short length, this book is packed with details, and pulls at the heartstrings more than a few times. I enjoyed the way that these several years of history were perfectly shortened into a quick story. Despite a full recap of events, the timeline at the end is still helpful. I also really enjoyed seeing all the included pictures and poems.
January 28, 2019
My middle school students were fascinated by this first hand account of living through the Holocaust. It made the subject matter real and relevant to them.
April 3, 2020
Not the best book about the Holocaust but it was an easy read. Reads more like a history book then a biography. Poems were placed in weird places.
February 27, 2012
In this book the author talks about her life in a ghetto and a concentration camp, Czechoslovakia. Since the author is a cultural insider the whole story is true. The author, Inge Auebacher, was a Jew during the Holocaust and tells us some of her background and what life was like. She say that the floors were dirt and muddy, the food they had was a disgusting soup and potatoes. I think the story is very well thought out because the author starts with how this all started and goes through telling her story. After the begining it then goes to how much she loathes Hitler and his rise to power. Because of him she lost everything, except her courage and her doll she loves. Then she turns to how the world was a dark place and how horrible it was. Then she ends with how she feels after the rule of Hitler and how she begins living the rest of her life happier. The book, I think was excellent and most of the words in there I understood, or figuered them out. In some parts of the book there wasn't a plot mainly on the main character, herself. Now, the point of view was first person. Now there were also other things in the book. There was some poetry,pictures, and black and white paintings. The poetry, I believe, is done by herself and the pictures are hers too. The illustrations and pictures were of her story and some of where she lived and went to. Oh, before I forget, the setting was in the concentration camp, Czechoslovakia, her old home, her grandparents' home, and on the road, or rather train where she was taken away from the concentration camp and saved.
Overall, I'd say that this book was the best non-fiction book I've ever read and I'd recomend it to any who enjoy WWII history, or is interested what life was like for a Jewish child during the Holocaust. This book is a true story and now I leave you, please do read it.
Overall, I'd say that this book was the best non-fiction book I've ever read and I'd recomend it to any who enjoy WWII history, or is interested what life was like for a Jewish child during the Holocaust. This book is a true story and now I leave you, please do read it.
April 1, 2011
If you are looking for a book about the Holocaust and are looking for a book that is familiar to the diray of anne frank, then this is the right book for you. I Am a Star takes place during world war 1 and 2 and is about a young girl whos family gets sent to a consentration camp and how she lived through all the pain and suffering millions of Jews in europe have gone through, and is one of the few children that survived the consentration camp called Terezin. In the consentration camps, women are forbbiden to have a child. Where Inge was working at, hundreds of babies were born in the consentration camp and both mother and baby were deported to the East. Out of those hundreds of babies, many survived the war.
What I did not like about this book is that Inge has to go through all the suffering of slave labor and to get treated like an animal at such an early age. What I also did not like about this story is that she had to see what non-jewish kids never saw like death, sickness, and a whole religion falling apart right before her very eyes. I could only imagine what she would have experienced as a young girl going through and surviving the Holocaust.
What I did like on the other hand is that she made it through all those horrible things that happened to her and millions of others fighting through the hardships of Jewish people in those brutal times. What I also liked about this book is that Inge described everything very clearly, as if I was her going through the pain and suffering she had to bear as a young little girl.
What I did not like about this book is that Inge has to go through all the suffering of slave labor and to get treated like an animal at such an early age. What I also did not like about this story is that she had to see what non-jewish kids never saw like death, sickness, and a whole religion falling apart right before her very eyes. I could only imagine what she would have experienced as a young girl going through and surviving the Holocaust.
What I did like on the other hand is that she made it through all those horrible things that happened to her and millions of others fighting through the hardships of Jewish people in those brutal times. What I also liked about this book is that Inge described everything very clearly, as if I was her going through the pain and suffering she had to bear as a young little girl.
June 21, 2011
Inge Auerbacher was one of only 100 children to survive the Nazi concentration camp of Terezin in Czeckoslovakia. Over 15,000 children passed through the gates of Terezin from 1941 through 1945. She tells of her family's horrifying experiences as the Nazis loom every larger and closer over their fates in I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust (Scholastic 1986). Through a combination of luck and determination Inge survived with both of her parents.
Inge was just three on the night of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass, November 9, 1938) and just seven when she was taken to Terezin. She recounts the growing terror her family experienced as they lost their German citizenship, their home, and finally, their freedom within the walls of Terezin. Against her personal memories, she provides the context of the Nazi's rise to power in Germany and across Europe. Photographs of Inge, her family, and Terezin bring the story into sharper focus. Poems written by Inge shine light into the dark of the camp and make my heart ache for those who suffered and died.
If you have read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and want to learn more about the Holocaust, I Am a Star is a good place to start.
Inge was just three on the night of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass, November 9, 1938) and just seven when she was taken to Terezin. She recounts the growing terror her family experienced as they lost their German citizenship, their home, and finally, their freedom within the walls of Terezin. Against her personal memories, she provides the context of the Nazi's rise to power in Germany and across Europe. Photographs of Inge, her family, and Terezin bring the story into sharper focus. Poems written by Inge shine light into the dark of the camp and make my heart ache for those who suffered and died.
If you have read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and want to learn more about the Holocaust, I Am a Star is a good place to start.
Want to read
March 14, 2012 In I Am a Star Inge Auerbacher recalls her experience as camp Terezin while sharing other details from the Holocaust. The book was very informative and Inge's story is told clearly. The the pictures and poems in the book portray camp life, and its difficulties and confusion. The theme of losing is present in many instances, such as the times she lost her grandparents, home and possessions to the the Nazis. Inge puts a lot of emphasis on strangers, but did not give much any information on close people such as friends and family. The point of view was poorly chosen because it was stated a little too dryly, making the author seem nearly apathetic of her own story. Overall, the book was very informative and useful, and is perfect for anyone seeking to know more about the Holocaust.
February 27, 2012
I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust is an autobiography of Inge Auerbacher's life. Throughout the book there are poems about the Holocaust and pictures showing the different places that she was taken to. out of about 4,000 children Inge and 100 others were the only ones to survive. She wrote this book to share her experiences with everyone who wants to know more about what it was like for children to live during the Holocaust. During the book she tells about how sometimes a smell or a picture can bring her back to where she was when it happened and make her feel like that frightened girl again. This book really informed the reader, and is a pretty good read for those looking for a Holocaust autobiography.
October 28, 2010
I am a Star: Child of the Holocaust reads much more like a history book than a narrative of a Holocaust survivor. Because of the large amount of historical background information this book is an excellent choice for a student without much prior knowledge.
Inge Auerbacher's poetry and clear recollection of her imprisonment in Teresienstadt, along with the background information create a very poignant story. However, the story doesn't seem to contain as much action or suspense as books in the genre of Holocaust literature. A young adult reader might quickly lose interest because of Auerbacher's more textbook like writing style.
Inge Auerbacher's poetry and clear recollection of her imprisonment in Teresienstadt, along with the background information create a very poignant story. However, the story doesn't seem to contain as much action or suspense as books in the genre of Holocaust literature. A young adult reader might quickly lose interest because of Auerbacher's more textbook like writing style.
February 24, 2012
I Am a Star is a non-fiction book about Inge Auerbacher, a Jewish girl who gets captured and sent to a concentration camp. She has faced death and escaped death too. This book was very unique with the original pictures of her art that was very accurate with the scenes that she wrote about. I thought that this book was great because you got to read something that actually turned out to be something good. This book is a must read if you just like to have a quick read and a lesson learned.
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May 26, 2009 I decided to read this book as an IR book. This book is pretty amazing. Basically it is about an amount of kids who tell their Holocaust story. A lot of the stories really tell you about how they lived and what they went through. A lot of them are about how they escaped from their home and had to stay in neighbors house that had the guts to put there lives on the line. And there was one where he was one of the those freedom people where they hide in the forest and bomb the Nazis'. If you want to find out more about
February 9, 2011
This is a memoir that will haunt you long after you've finished the book. Inge Auerbacher was sent to Terezin concentration camp when she was only seven years old. This isn't just a sad re-telling of her story of survival. She has filled this short book with pictures to help the youngest reader visualize that time period and the conditions she lived in. She has sprinkled poetry throughout. This is not just a sad story but a story of hope. Most importantly this story is the voice of every child who died at Terezin.
February 27, 2012
This book is about the story of the Jewish author’s, Inge Auerbacher, life during the Holocaust. She was living in Germany when she was transported to a constetration camp in Czechoslovakia. There, she experienced some of the most horric acts of humanity. This was a vivid story about what life was like in concentration camps. It was sad story, but showed the resiliance people can have after tragect events. Photophaphs of the camp and the personal life of Inge added to the mood and theme. This is a good book for anyone who wants to know what life was like for Holocaust victims.
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February 19, 2009I thought this might be the story I had read as a tween, but it's not. But it's an amazing story and should be read by all. If anyone knows what book I had read about a young, jewish girl--who's story is similar to this author's--please let me know! The difference is that the girl in the book I had read earlier, her mother died. But she carried her mother's words with her when she eventualy moved to the US after the Americans/Russians saved her: "When there is life, there is hope."
July 19, 2011
This was a ok read. I read this in less than an hour. There wasn't a lot of depth given, rather it was a lot of general info that told.I didn't feel anything for the author or her family. Usually in these books, I feel for the survivors or the victims, but here I just was like meh. Which is kinda unfortunate.
But I do have to say, that as an intro type of a book on the subject it wasn't all that bad.
But I do have to say, that as an intro type of a book on the subject it wasn't all that bad.
January 7, 2010
I cried about the experiences this author relates of her years from ages 5-10 in a concentration camp during WWII. Short and to the point details about the actions of Hitler's government and what happened in years from 1920-45 relating to Jewish people in Germany and Europe in countries he controlled.
October 14, 2010
if you want a short over view of what happened to the Jews during WWII from a child's point of view then this is a good book but as for me I've herd enough about the Jews in history class that every one knows the story yeah yeah they where hated and disliked by many of the Germans and Nazis blah blah.
August 3, 2011
heart-wrenching. there were moments i wanted to throw up reading about their living conditions; however, i think it's a book everyone should read. we can't forget what was done (and what may still be happening for some).
October 15, 2008
The poems in this short biography are so inspiring. I read this as part of a unit study for the Holocaust and we enjoyed the message the author brought through her life experience and poems.
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