We All Wore Stars Memories of Anne Frank from Her Classmates

by Coster, Theo; de Jager, Marjolijn

• ISBN13: 9780230114449
• ISBN10: 023011444X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-27
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

In 1941, Theo Coster was a student at the Amsterdam Jewish Lyceum, one in a class of 28 Jewish children that the Nazis had segregated from the rest of the Dutch population. Among Theo's fellow students was a young Anne Frank, whose diary would later become one of the most important documents of the Holocaust. In this remarkable group portrait, Coster and five of his fellow classmates gather their personal stories and memories of Anne. The accounts collected here do not just help us to rediscover Anne Frank. They also stand on their own as remarkable stories of ingenuity and survival during the Holocaust--from Albert Gomes de Mesquita, who hid in ten different towns across Europe--to Hannah Goslar, who experienced the horrors of Bergen-Belsen but also made a miraculous reconnection with Anne days before her death.

Author Biography

Theo Coster was a classmate and friend of Anne Frank at the Amsterdam Jewish Lyceum. A toymaker and game designer, he is executive producer of the documentary film The Classmates of Anne Frank. Coster has lived in Tel Aviv since 1955.

Table of Contents

The Birth of an Idea * Part I: Off to a new school – age twelve * Part II: Going underground – age fourteen * Prisoners for exchange * Nanette’s clock * Arrested * Reunion at Merwedeplein * Going underground * Anne Frank’s admirers * Inside and outside school * The German invasion * Escaped from German hands * The first electric potter in the Netherlands * Hiding in the forest * A copied letter * Visiting the Anne Frank House * Westerbork * Expunging memories * Part III: After the war – age seventeen * An unexpected reunion * A future in Israel * The queen’s permission * In a glass coffin * In love in London * A grim message * Levels of suffering * The importance of blond hair * Epilogue * The film