WWII Nonfiction Reader Response

    I am a Star by Inge Auerbacher is about a young, Jewish girl and her struggle to survive the Holocaust. To begin, Inge talks about the how the discrimination began in her town of Kippenheim when, “Some people began to say that Jews belonged to a different race and that Jews were racially inferior” (10). From this belief, many thing changes for the Jews including who could buy from them, deprivation of their German citizenship, where they could go, and what occupations they could have. Christians were forbidden to associate with the Jews, while some had no problem with this, others disobeyed and left food and saved important items for after the war. Inge then describes her experience as a child at the camp, “We slept on the floor or, if lucky, on straw-filled mattresses... The rooms were smelly and steamy in summer and freezing in winter... The most important words in our vocabulary were bread, potatoes, and soup” (43). Inge also highlights the other conditions of the camp when she discusses the high walls and trenches, the pile of garbage where she and the other children played, the “hospital” where she spent four months with Scarlet fever, and the smell of death that filled the air.

   In the text, Inge wrote several poems that pertained to her experiences and there was one that I found especially interesting. When discussing the people in the camp, Inge found very little hope that someone could still care for others even when they were struggling themselves. When Inge has first arrived at the camp and had no bed she met the “Angel in Hell” — Mrs. Rinder — and wrote a poem about their interaction,

An Angel in Hell

We searched the dump for each potato peeling,

Stole from the dead without guilt or feeling.

Nothing seemed to change; time stood still,

Was there anyone left with good will?

To this planet of shadow and despair,

An angel came to give help and care.

One hand was clutched by her little son,

She wanted to mother everyone.

Through time she moved on unseen wings,
Bearing food and other needed things.
This stranger reached out with heart in hands,
Asking no thanks, or making demands.

Both would never leave the abyss, 
Or be touched again by life’s kiss.
I searched my heart for an answer, Why, why?
Where was justice, why their sentence to die?

   I found this interesting because, when placed under such harsh conditions, most people only think of themselves but Mrs. Rinder did not. It is hard to think of others when you have very little food and death is right around the corner. It’s nice to see that not everyone succumbed to the selfishness that most displayed although it might’ve cost her her life.

   One thing I learned but will never forget is the terrible condition of the concentration camps. Inge talks of many problems with the camp but one sticks out above the rest. In order to hide from the world, Terezin literally and physically puts up walls, Inge brings this up when she says, “It was sealed off from the outside world by high walls, deep water-filled trenches, wooden fences, and barbed wire. Radio, telephone, and newspaper communication with the outside was strictly forbidden” (38). So many innocent people were trapped in a prison against their will and were being killed without good reason. Despite their efforts, contact with the outside world was little to none and many died before getting to share their stories.