Annemarie Johanen's Number The Stars

567 Words3 Pages

Number the Stars is about two families that are living in Copenhagen, Denmark during the Holocaust period of history. Precisely, September of 1943. Two of the daughters from the two families are best friends, classmates, and neighbors. Ellen and Annemarie are the two girls. Ellen Rosen is Jewish and Annemarie Johansen is German. This is a problem, especially during WWII. Nazi soldiers are all over their town in Denmark and the girls have an encounter with soldiers walking home from school one day. Days go on, soon Jewish parts of town are shut down and closed down. Annemarie is told about the war that is taking place and that the Jewish families must flee Denmark and go to a neutral country where they can live safely without the fear of Nazis and Holocausts. Ellen’s family leaves Denmark, but leaves Ellen with Annemarie and her family. Their housing complex is raided by Nazi soldiers and come to Annemarie’s apartment wanting to know where the Rosen’s went. The soldiers end up coming in and searching their apartment. Ellen acts like she is part of Annemarie’s family while the soldiers are searching and questioning them. They look at Ellen and notice that she is the only one with dark hair amongst the rest of the family. Annemarie’s dad pulls out a picture of their deceased sister who passed away …show more content…

They stay there for the night and then attend a funeral the very next day for a great aunt that Annemarie has never heard of. The coffin shows up and it’s empty. Ellen’s parents show up and they are all together again. Everything couldn’t have happened without a problem; the soldiers show up and want to know who or what is in the coffin. Annemarie’s mom said that the great aunt died of a contagious disease and recommends that they do not open the coffin because of this. They take her advice and leave soon