I Am a Star

Table of Contents

 

 

 

I remember as a little girl waiting impatiently for my birthday to arrive. My childhood birthdays were always very happy and typical. That is, until my eighth birthday. I was seven years old in 1942, when I was sent with my parents to a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. My next three birthdays marked the years of a nightmare.

Of fifteen thousand children imprisoned in the Terezin concentration camp between 1941 and 1945, about one hundred survived. I am one of them. At least one and a half million children were killed in the Nazi Holocaust.

The reason most of those children died is that they were Jewish.

 

 

 

 

PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group,
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 90 Eglincon Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand

 

First published in the United States of America by Prentice-Hall Books for Young Readers,
a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1986
Published by Puffin Books, 1993, 2006

Copyright © Inge Auerbacher, 1986

Illustrations copyright © Israel Bernbaum, 1986
All rights reserved

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Auerbacher, Inge, 1934-
I am a star: child of the Holocaust / Inge Auerbacher, with illustrations by Israel Bernbaum.
p. cm.
Summary: The author’s reminiscences about her childhood in Germany,
years of which were spent in a Nazi concentration camp.
Includes several of her original poems.

eISBN : 978-1-101-12800-8

1. Jews—Germany—Kippenheim—Persecutions—Juvenile literature.
2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939—1945)—Germany—Kippenheim—Personal narratives—Juvenile literature.
3. Terezin (Czechoslovakia: Concentration camp)—Juvenile literature.
4 Auerbacher, Inge, 1934-—Juvenile literature. 5. Kippenheim (Germany)—Ethnic relations—
Juvenile literature, [1. Auerbacher, Inge, 1934- 2. Jews—Germany—Biography.
3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Germany—Kippenheim—Personal narratives.
4. Terezin (Czechoslovakia: Concentration camp). 5. Concentration camps—Czechoslovakia.]
I. Bernbaum, Israel, ill. II Title.
[DS135.G4K553 1993] 940.53’18’094371-dc20 92-31444

 

 

 

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any
responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

My parents, the guardian angels, who in the presence of great odds tried to shelter me from the blows, ease my pain, and still my hunger and fears.

Ruth and Tommy and the more than one and a half million Jewish children of the Holocaust, who now are stars of the night.

All the children of the universe, who are the new stars that shine brightly today and illuminate the world with their love.

 

 

I
remember as a little girl waiting impatiently for my birthday to arrive. My childhood birthdays were always very happy and special. That is, until my eighth birthday. I was seven years old in 1942 when I was sent with my parents to a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. My next three birthdays marked the years of a nightmare.

Of fifteen thousand children imprisoned in the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia between 1941 and 1945, about one hundred survived. I am one of them. At least one and a half million children were killed in the Nazi Holocaust. The reason most of those children died is that they were Jewish.

Why should one remember these dreadful events? The death of one innocent child is a catastrophe; the loss of such numbers is unimaginable. Their silent voices must be heard today. This is why I feel compelled to trace the historical events that made this great evil possible and to tell my own story.

The fortress walls
at
Terezin.

Many years have passed since these events. Sometimes particular things such as a uniform, high black boots, or the sound of a whistle and train, shock me into the past. On a vacation in Quebec City, Canada, the sight of the old fortification brought the memories flooding back. The high red brick walls seemed to close in on me. I felt frightened. It was as if I were back there in Czechoslovakia. Yesterday became today. This was not Quebec City anymore; it became Terezin. It brought back to me the time when the nightmare began.