A similar necklace was depicted on the book’s cover and played a role in the story. Once a fourth-grade teacher in Tennessee told me that she read the book aloud to her class and one day brought with her to the classroom a necklace with a Star of David. Translated now into 28 languages, the book is in schools throughout the world and has been read by countless children. I hear from teachers all the time. I called the book "Number the Stars," borrowing a phrase from Psalm 147: Thirty-two years ago I wrote a book, intended for a readership of children 8 to 12 years old, describing the events in 1943 Denmark. They have left a legacy: They were part of a true story of empathy and integrity.įreedom of speech: First Amendment Day is an important reminder of the rights we enjoy – and must protect But they have left children and grandchildren. Those survivors of the Danish rescue who are still alive are now very old. So has Bent Melchior, just this past summer. Bent was also saved and years later became, himself, the chief rabbi of Denmark. He knew he was Jewish his father was a rabbi.
In another boat, a 14-year-old named Bent Melchior was also cold and seasick and scared. Opinions in your inbox: Get a digest of our takes on current events every morning Eventually, she would marry an American and raise their sons in Chicago.
She huddled, seasick and frightened, in the bottom of a boat and her life was saved. In the days that followed, the Jews were smuggled in fishing boats to Sweden, a neutral country where they would be safe.Ī 9-year-old girl named Mette Hannover didn’t even know she was Jewish. In an amazing display of collective and spontaneous moral courage, the Christian population of the country had risen up, hidden and saved their Jewish population. They had the names and addresses of the more than 7,000 Danish Jews and would make the arrests during the Jewish High Holidays later in October. But when that time came, the Germans pounded on the doors, kicked them in and found every house and apartment empty.
The German army was to round up and arrest all Jews in Denmark. Transportation to the camps was in place and waiting. The bishop did this because a German official named Georg Duckwitz had gone to the Danish government and alerted them to a directive that had just come from Gestapo headquarters. In October 1943 – 78 years ago this month – a letter by the Copenhagen bishop was read aloud in Danish churches. In part, it said: "Wherever Jews are persecuted because of their religion or race it is the duty of the Christian Church to protest against such persecution, because it is in conflict with the sense of justice inherent in the Danish people and inseparable from our Danish Christian culture." Watch Video: USA TODAY's Jori Epstein interviews Holocaust survivor Max Glauben
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