MEDIA

Yellow Stars of Tolerance

28 min. Dist. by Dreamscape. 2016. $38.99 (PPR). ISBN 857326006274.
COPY ISBN
Gr 9 Up—On the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, Marie Lippmann returns from America to revisit her childhood town, Elbeuf, once a thriving textile hub. There, during the Nazi occupation of France, intolerance led to the exclusion of Jews and their exportation and extermination, and the town's synagogue's rear exterior was defiled with painted yellow stars. Decades later, the two remaining Jews in Elbeuf decided that their prayer house facade should be renovated. A descriptive plaque was affixed to the front, leaving the rear wall marked with the yellow stars. Not long after the ceremonial speeches, vandals sprayed red paint over the stars. This story is noteworthy, but production features undermine the message. Subtitles often compete with screen images in a hurried fashion and obscure the visuals.
VERDICT A secondary choice for history classes studying the Holocaust and symbols of intolerance.
Reviewed by Robin Levin, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC , Nov 01, 2016

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