My Canary Yellow Star

Description

233 pages
Contains Maps
$8.99
ISBN 0-88776-533-5
DDC jC813'.54

Author

Publisher

Year

2001

Contributor

Reviewed by Dave Jenkinson

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Review

Wiseman adds to the store of gripping Holocaust literature by dealing
with a portion of this historical event that has been largely absent in
writings for young adults. Commencing on March 19, 1944, the day German
troops entered Budapest, Hungary, and concluding on January 17, 1945,
the date on which the Soviet Army liberated the city, My Canary Yellow
Star, through the fictional Weisz family, relates the increasingly
horrendous events visited upon Hungarian Jews during this 10–month
period.

Told from the perspective of the family’s elder child, Marta, 15, the
story, understandably lacks a happy ending. At the outset, the father, a
medical doctor, is conscripted into a forced-labor regiment from which
he never returns. As the months pass, Marta, her mother, younger
brother, and paternal grandmother find food and shelter increasingly
difficult to obtain as more restrictions are placed on the Jewish
population. While Wiseman reveals that the Germans played a prominent
role in the fate of Hungarian Jews, she also makes clear that some of
their worst treatment came at the hands of fellow Hungarians, especially
the members of the Hungarian fascist party the Arrow Cross. However,
Wiseman does show that not all Christian Hungarians behaved badly, and
she includes a doomed romance involving Marta and Peter, her longtime
Christian friend. An interesting addition is Wiseman’s inclusion of
the exploits of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg in saving thousands of
Jewish lives. Highly recommended.

Citation

Wiseman, Eva., “My Canary Yellow Star,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed November 6, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/21905.