Summary Of Lois Lowry's Number The Stars

World War Two was a dark time for most of Europe. It was especially a bad time for the Jews of those countries. Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of Germany, blamed Germany’s problems on the Jews. Therefore, he wanted to wipe out all the Jews in Germany and across Europe (Truman). He took over Europe country by country. When he invaded Denmark in 1940, the Danish King peacefully submitted to minimize Danish casualties (Musynske). The Danish resistance was created with the purpose of sabotaging the Germans and smuggling the Danish Jews to Sweden (Musynske). They succeeded in smuggling all but a few hundred out of Denmark (Musynske). Number the Stars is a story told in 1943, three years after Germany took over Denmark. It is about two best friends,

An event that includes a run-in with two large, armed men who are notorious for invading your country can be tremendously overwhelming. Therefore it is no surprise that Annemarie’s “heart seemed to skip a beat (Lowry 15)” when she saw the soldiers. Neither is Ellen’s frozen state or her pale face and wide, dark eyes (Lowry 16-17). In her book, Lois Lowry captures more than just the fear that the young girls felt. She writes about the small details that a child would actually notice. Annemarie noticed the guns and the soldiers’ “cold eyes (Lowry 15)” and the “four tall shiny boots planted firmly on the sidewalk, blocking her path to home (Lowry 15)”. A fearful child would more likely look down at a soldier's boots than up at their face. When Lowry was interviewing people for this book, she realized how significant these boots actually were. For many people these boots are a strong memory and they frequently referenced to them in their interview. One women she met was only a toddler when the Nazis came banging on her door (Lowry speech). Her parents hid her in a tight hiding space under the floorboards (Lowry speech). Although the memory was very vague, the one thing that the woman remembered clearly was “the high shiny boots (Lowry speech)”. Annelise Platt, Lowry’s good friend, is the women that inspired this story and who the protagonist Annemarie is based on. She was a child, about the age of

Although, some of the characters were inspired by real people. Annemarie was inspired by Lowry’s friend Annelise (Lowry 150). Even Peter, a member of the Danish resistance that helped the Rosens, was inspired by a man named Kim Malthe-Bruune (Lowry 153). There are a few other facts that prove this book's historical inaccuracy. For one, the reasoning behind Sweden’s neutrality. When Annelise asked her uncle Henrik if the Rosens would be safe in Sweden, he replied yes because “the Nazis want Sweden to remain free (Lowry 143)”. Although, Hitler didn’t want Sweden to remain free (Chen). Starting in 1940, he tried very hard to get Sweden to join Germany (Chen). Sweden tried to appease Germany by letting them have limited use of the Swedish railroad system but they had no intention of joining Germany (Chen). Sweden even re-instated conscription to increase its’ army to protect itself from an invasion from Germany (Chen). This proves that Sweden’s neutrality was a decision to guard against Germany and was a decision that the Nazis weren’t fond