Alyssa Johnson

Dear Lois Lowry,

 

Every year in history we'd study the Holocaust unit. It was never my favorite. Who cares about something that happened 40 years ago? Who cares about the millions of people who died, to whom we would never know? After reading Number the Stars

I now know why people do.

 

After telling my parents about the unit, I later found out my great grandpa was a Nazi soldier. When I heard that he was a Nazi, I got curious and started to research more about the war. I found out that not only was my great grandpa was a Nazi, so was two of my great uncles. I thought, "Ok, what's so bad about being in an army?" But the things that the Nazi's did to the Jews and other religions, made me break down into tears.

 

In the book, Annemarie, Ellen and their families were forced to leave their home and live in a ghetto. Although they had their family, food and a place to stay, Nazi's guarded every corner and was able to do anything to you. When I read this, it made me scared and I felt sorry for them. I just couldn't imagine my own peaceful and happy home, being stalked by green suited, mean looking men just waiting to get their hands on you. Later in the book, Annemarie's father was a part of a secret newspaper company. In order to send and receive these papers, they had to be delivered secretly by bread baskets, underneath a read handkerchief. Then after they received the letter they would have to burn it. When I read this, it made me think. It made me think in a way that we don't realize how much we take for granted, that we have all these internet sites to connect to one another where tons of innocent people had to carefully send notes one by one; hoping that they wouldn't get caught.

 

Your book made my own life come to a stop. It hurt my brain trying to visualize what was going on while I was reading. The emotion and the suffering, was just too much for me to handle. Every page I would want to cry, but also I wanted to keep on reading, just to see if they would make it out alive. Number the Stars

taught me that bad things do happen in the world, and in order for them to not happen again, we have to learn, and realize that things like the Holocaust really did and do happen. I will now respect every time our school studies the Holocaust.

 

Sincerely,

Alyssa Johnson