Leaving your beautiful home, having to move to the ghetto, and then forced out of the ghetto into hiding in the city sewer system.

Could this get any worse for Sadie and her family?

Could it really be a hiding place unknown to the Germans and a safe place for two Jewish families?

Sadie and her mother knew it was the best place to be for now, but living there was horrible. No windows, awful smells, floods, and always cold.

One day Sadie notices a girl looking down through a grate. Sadie drew back, but the girl actually became the light in Sadie’s dreary days and brought food.

It was very dangerous for both girls and the others hiding below. You will feel the terror and desperation the characters felt but also the hope that things will work out.

Ms. Jenoff has brought another heartbreaking situation to light but also showed us the power of friendship, caring, and endurance.

If you are a fan of Ms. Jenoff’s books, this one is an outstanding addition to her marvelous, well-researched gems that you do NOT want to miss.

You will be glued to the pages as you live the lives of the characters. 5/5

This book was given to me as an advanced digital review copy by the publisher via NetGalley and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

The Woman With The Blue Star, Pam Jenoff, author; Jennifer Jill Araya, Emily Lawrence, Nancy Peterson, narrators.
The setting is Krakow, Poland. It is 1942 and Hitler has conquered the country. At first conditions were bearable for those who were not hunted, but as the war progressed, the situation worsened. After the Jews were gone, the Nazis simply went after the Poles. There were shortages of food, curfews and roundups which terrified the populace. Although Poland didn’t welcome the Nazis with open arms as did the Austrians, they put up little resistance. Soon, however, a secret Home Army formed to save Poland and sabotage the German effort. Their effort was directed mainly toward saving Poland and was not very concerned with the mistreatment of Jews, or others, whom the Germans deemed not sufficiently Aryan.
Eighteen-year-old Sadie Gault is a Jew in Krakow. Her family is not religious and she enjoyed, what to her was an idyllic life. She had everything she wanted including two loving parents. She also had a brother, Maciej, who lived in Paris with his boyfriend. When the Germans came, life changed dramatically, not just because the Jews were required to wear a blue star on their clothing, but because soon, fear of the Germans isolated them from others. As life for the Jews and people like Maciej, contracted with barbaric rules and as schools and parks and all forms of culture were closed to them, the Germans began to tighten the noose even more. Jews were herded into ghettoes and actions were staged to round them up for arrest or transport to work camps. Soon the roundups would ensnare the Gault family too. They had to escape.
Ella Stepanek, also a teenager, lives in luxury with her stepmother, Ana Lucia, who dislikes her intensely and the feeling is mutual. Both her parents were dead so she has no choice but to suffer Anna Lucia’s cruelty. Because Ana Lucia collaborates with the Germans, Ella does not witness the deprivation other Poles are dealing with. There are no food shortages in her home and her movement around the city is not restricted since she has obtained a special travel document. However, Ella despises the Germans and resents her stepmother’s relationship with them. She stays away as much as possible whenever Anna Lucia is entertaining her “friends”. Although she is not experiencing much of a change due to the war, she is suddenly beginning to notice others who are not as fortunate. One day she witnesses a Jewish woman jump into the river with her infant, rather than allow herself to be captured by the Nazis. She feared their brutality more than death. Their reputation for cruelty and violence was well known.
One day, when Ella was out and about, she noticed something strange in a sewer grate. It appeared to be two hungry eyes staring back at her. Realizing that it was not a rat but a person who would not want to be discovered, she did not react. Why are you in the sewer, she asked. When she realized that several people were living there in secret, she began to help them. That is how Ella came to know Sadie. Sadie lived in the sewer with her pregnant mom and the orthodox Rosenberg family.
As the unlikely friendship between Ella and Sadie developed and grew more intense because of the traumatic times, the reader is gently introduced to the horrors of Hitler. The reader discovers the bravery of ordinary citizens who risk their lives to save Jews, while other equally ordinary citizens coldly turn them in for a crust of bread, or like Ana Lucia, curry favors from the Germans by befriending them and even passing them information. The underground effort, of ordinary citizens, to sabotages the German effort and plan the Warsaw Ghetto uprising is really commendable. Although condition are horrific, the Jews that are in the ghettoes and the Jews in hiding often find a store of resilience they did not know that they had. They find the courage to survive.
Although the book purports to be historical fiction, it soon devolves into more of a coming of age, romance novel that seems more appropriate for the YA crowd. The narrative is a little juvenile, the historic information is sparse, and the characters behavior is often implausible. Rather than behaving like adults in the most extreme, traumatic situation, the two female main characters appear to be naïve and self-centered most of the time, giving in to their very childish impulses, disregarding the danger to themselves and others. Their choices were often naïve and immature, leading to unnecessary injury to others. The narrator’s interpretation often exacerbated this feeling.
In spite of this, however, the atmosphere at the time of the Holocaust seems genuine and the description of the savage behavior of the Germans seems accurate. For someone who is not a student of that part of history, this will serve as a heartbreaking introduction. Although parts of the story are difficult to believe, I personally know of a family that lived in a sewer because of the good graces of a farmer who risked his life to let them stay there. He provided for their needs as best he could. My friend’s mother then silently gave birth to a daughter, in a ditch dug by her husband. Thankfully, they did survive the war. The book has a surprise ending, so do not peek.