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

Introduction-Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction Summary

Syvia Perlmutter was four-and-a-half years old when World War II broke out. For 50 years, she did not talk about her experiences in the Lodz Ghetto in Poland. When her recollections began to emerge in dreams and memories, she told her niece, Jennifer Roy, about them, who collated these memories into a novel in verse from Syvia’s first-person perspective.

As a Jewish American, Roy knew that the Holocaust was a shocking and tragic event that they should never forget, but she also struggled to understand it, as none of her relatives ever wanted to talk about it—including her father, who narrowly escaped both the Black Forest Massacre (where his own father was murdered) and the extermination camps. Through Syvia’s memories, Roy feels connected to the lived experience of her relatives in the Holocaust.

Part 1, Introduction Summary

On May 1, 1940, 160,000 Jewish people who lived in the Polish city of Lodz were forcibly relocated into a ghetto, which was enclosed with a barbed-wire fence.

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Fall 1939”

“How It Begins”

Syvia’s father unexpectedly comes home from work. Syvia brushes her doll’s hair and listens to her parents and aunts discussing the need to leave Lodz, which is now unsafe for Jewish people.

“Questions”

Syvia’s parents pack their home and do not answer Syvia’s questions.

“The Journey”

The family travels to Warsaw in a horse-drawn buggy. It is freezing cold.

In Warsaw, no one will rent houses to the family or give them jobs. They return to Lodz.

“The Star of David”

A yellow star is sewn onto Syvia’s new orange coat. She doesn’t like it and feels that yellow should be a color associated with happiness, not hatred.

“Ghetto”

The Jews are ordered into a small space called a ghetto. Syvia’s father tells her that over 100,000 people will be moving in.

“The Rest of Poland”

Non-Jewish Poles are allowed to stay in their homes; Syvia doesn’t understand why.

Syvia’s older sister, Dora, says that their neighbors are no longer their friends, and that they are happy that they are being forced to leave.

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “February 1940”

“Relocation”

Syvia’s sister holds her hand as they move into the ghetto; it is crowded with other people moving possessions in.

“New Home”

They enter their new apartment; it is far smaller than their previous home.

“The Toilet”

Syvia finds the toilet—which is shared by the whole apartment building—to be dark and scary. She is worried that she will be trapped in it and is always relieved to leave.

“Relatives”

Many of Syvia’s family’s relatives, including aunts, uncles, and cousins, live in the ghetto now.

“The Flour Man”

Syvia’s father, who was a salesman before the war, has a job in the ghetto delivering flour. He is tired after work. Her parents never go out like they used to.

“Women’s Work”

Syvia’s mother and Dora (who has to pretend that she is 14, not 12) work in a factory making women’s underwear.

Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Summer 1940”

“The Fence”

An impenetrable fence is constructed around the ghetto. Syvia’s mother is happy to be protected from the Poles, but Syvia’s father points out that they are now at the mercy of the Nazis.

“Hava and Itka”

Syvia plays with ragdolls with her friends Hava and Itka. Hava’s brother has cancer.

“Food”

Syvia queues with her mother for their ration of bread, but the bread runs out before they reach the front of the line. They can buy vegetables and occasionally small pieces of horse meat. Sometimes Papa has enough flour left over in his pockets and on his clothing to make noodles.

“Colors of the Ghetto”

The ghetto is brown, except for red blood and yellow stars. Syvia’s father’s face is gray as he explains that there have been more shootings.

“The Guard”

Dora and Syvia must pass the armed guard at the fence to reach their aunt’s apartment. Terrified, Syvia thinks of the stories she has heard of people being shot without cause. The guard reaches for his cigarette; Syvia is relieved that it isn’t his gun.

Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “Fall 1940”

“No School”

Dora is in a bad mood; it would have been her first day back at school. Syvia remembers her sister’s excitement before school the previous year. Dora wonders whether people notice that she’s gone.

“Kindergarten”

It would have been Syvia’s first day of kindergarten. Dora teaches her letters of the alphabet by drawing in the dirt with a stick. They sit in the mud, laughing and covering letters with their bottoms.

“Motorcycles”

The Nazi motorcycles are loud and dangerous.

“Playing Games”

Itka points out a boy on the street below who is a smuggler; he leaves the ghetto at night to sell things to the Polish people and bring back other things for the Jewish people.

“Making Clothes”

Syvia helps the women in her building take apart old sweaters. They use the yarn for new clothing.

Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary: “Winter 1940”

“Mourning”

Hava’s brother dies. Hava’s family observes shiva, the Jewish mourning time. Syvia visits with her family. She brings her doll (carrying it as the doll carriage was chopped up for firewood), but then she realizes that they will not be playing.

Many other people have also died. Syvia pictures a giant bubble floating around her family to keep them safe.

“Rumkowski”

The ghetto money, which they call “Rumkies,” is printed with Rumkowski’s face on it; he is the elder leader of the Jews in the ghetto.

“Ration Cards”

Dora and Syvia’s parents are given rations due to their work. Syvia is given the scraps from their rations as well as neighbors’ contributions. She remembers the delicious food they used to eat.

“A Big Girl”

Syvia is six. The neighbors occasionally watch her because the time of Dora’s work shift has changed.

“Chills”

Winter in the ghetto is hard. Food is scarce, and it is freezing. Dora, in a bad mood, tells Syvia to do as she says or the “Bad Men” will get her.

Introduction-Part 1 Analysis

The exposition contextualizes the nature of Syvia’s childlike recollections, which are not reframed by an adult perspective, as she intentionally does not think or talk about her experiences for more than 50 years. For this reason, although Syvia is a middle-aged woman when she recalls her memories to Roy, her niece, “she spoke as if looking through a child’s eyes” (13). Vivid sensory details that would be noticed by a child are often conveyed, such as the colors of the ghetto:

I see brown shoes, brown pants legs, brown dresses, brown road. I look up at the brown buildings and the cloud of brown dust and smoke that hangs in the sky. Bright colors don’t exist in the ghetto, except for the yellow stars and puddles of red blood that we carefully step around. ‘More shootings,’ Papa says quietly. His face is gray (33).

The pivotal theme, Indignities and Hardships of Life in the Ghetto, is introduced in this imagery, which paints a picture of a grim and muted world of browns and grays—save for the symbolic brightness of the red blood and the yellow Stars of David. The yellow stars serve as a reminder of the mandated and systemic program of antisemitism that the Nazi invasion brings to Poland, while the blood emphasizes the immense and tragic program of Antisemitic Genocide. This genocide occurred in the Lodz Ghetto and in the associated infamous extermination camps, to which the vast majority of the ghetto’s inhabitants were sent.

Scarcity is established as an important and recurring motif that demonstrates the Indignities and Hardships of Life in the Ghetto. After Syvia’s father chops up her doll’s carriage for firewood, Syvia must carry it. She also hears someone shouting, “[N]o more bread! [A]ll out!” as she stands in the ration line with her mother, reminding readers of the immense lack of food, even for those who are allocated ration cards for working (32). The desperation of individuals to survive, as well as their ingenuity, is illustrated in the sharing of the tiny portions of flour on the clothes of the flour delivery workers: “[T]hey shake the flour dust that has collected in their pockets, flour spilled from openings in the seams of the fabric delivery bags. They place the dust on a scale and combine the flour, then divide it equally among the men” (32). There is also a sense of community and equality in the fact that the workers share and divide the flour; this act emphasizes their humanity, which is otherwise not recognized—at least, by the Nazis—in the ghetto.

Syvia remembers the food that the family used to eat before living in the ghetto: “[T]hey slip me bits of things that do not taste at all like the food Mother used to cook at home. Before. Sweet pastries, soups thick with meat and noodles, chewy bread with fruit spread” (44). This food is recalled with almost sensual detail; Syvia’s hunger and longing for nutritious food are clear as she reflects on her past.

The sisters are not allowed to attend school in the ghetto. Syvia’s imaginings about her first day at kindergarten are contrasted with the bleak reality of the ghetto, demonstrating the extent that the lives of those in the ghetto have changed since Nazi occupation: “Today would have been my first day of kindergarten. I imagine shiny classroom floors, sunny windows, a clean chalkboard, and a smiley teacher who says, ‘Welcome, Syvia!’ I ask Dora to teach me the alphabet. She takes a stick and draws letters in the dirt” (37). The imagery of a shiny, sun-filled classroom with a smiling teacher is juxtaposed with Dora drawing in the dirt with a stick so that Syvia can learn the alphabet, although Resilience in the Face of Hardship is also introduced as an important theme in the sisters finding joy and humor in the situation: “She sits down, too, mud and all. ‘What letter am I covering?’ she asks. ‘D,’ I say (just guessing). ‘Good,’ my sister replies. Then we both laugh” (38). While the education is not as formal as it would have been in kindergarten, there is still a sense of camaraderie and friendship in their interaction.

Although the family finds moments of lightness and joy where they can, fear is a constant feature of their lives. Syvia hears the “thump, thump” of her beating heart as they pass the Nazi guard, remembering stories of other Jews in the ghetto being shot for no reason. The hypervigilance this six-year-old has developed is clear in her rising panic when the guard lifts his arm: “[T]he guard is lifting up his arm (To shoot his gun?) to light his cigarette” (35). At this moment, a simple, harmless gesture is made threatening, stressing the unpredictability of the guard’s behavior. Similarly, the apartments of Lodz Ghetto are described as “boxes of grief and fear”—a metaphor that encapsulates the families’ distress as they mourn those who have died and wonder fearfully who will die next (42).