Sheet of Yellow Stars

Image Use: Use of images owned by the National Holocaust Centre and Museum is governed by our Terms and Conditions.	Accession Number: NEKHC:2014.20 Object: Sheet of Yellow Stars Physical Description: Complete; fabric with ink. Information: This sheet of yellow stars forms part of the Steven Frank collection. It belonged to Steven's mother.

Image Use: Use of images owned by the National Holocaust Centre and Museum is governed by our Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number: NEKHC:2014.20

Object: Sheet of Yellow Stars

Physical Description: Complete; fabric with ink.

Information: This sheet of yellow stars forms part of the Steven Frank collection. It belonged to Steven's mother.

This sheet of yellow stars forms part of the Steven Frank collection. The dashed lines at the outer edge of the star show where the Stars were to be cut from the larger piece of material and sewn onto people's clothes. This sheet of Stars is one of four sheets of Stars which had belonged to Steven's mother.

The family were arrested in Amsterdam and deported, ultimately to Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic. In The Netherlands where the family had previously lived, the Stars had 'Jood' on them, Dutch for 'Jew'. As all these Stars have 'Jude' written on them, German for 'Jew', Steven thinks that his mother bought them out of Theresienstadt on their liberation.

Steven can remember being forced to wear the Star of David, and his parents warning of serious danger if he were to go out not wearing one. This came amid many restrictions on Jewish people's lives and Steven remembers it as another of many things he had to, or was no longer allowed to do, and remembers checks occuring to see if children were wearing a Star. Steven remembers his mother keeping as many documents and objects as possible, and feeling that the family's story, and the events of the Holocaust should be recorded and known. On finding these sheets of Stars after his mother's death, Steven donated one to The National Holocaust Centre and Museum.

Further Information

The identifying badges mandated by the Nazi regime were often sewn onto a person’s clothing either on the arm, chest, back or all of those places. The intention was to isolate, harass and humiliate Jewish people, and further embedded Nazi ideology that Jewish people were different from everyone else by marking them out from the rest of the population.

Sources:

Fischel, Jack (2010) Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust Maryland: Scarecrow Press Inc.

Germany (1941) Deutsches Reichsgesetzblatt [German Reich Law Journal] Police Regulation for the Labelling of Jews (September 1, 1941) Part 1: 547 [Online]. Available at: http://alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?aid=dra&datum=1941&size=45&page=575 (Accessed: 20 January 2015).

Gutman, Israel (ed.) (1990) Encyclopedia of the Holocaust Jerusalem: Yad Vashem.

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust ‘23/11/1939: Introduction of the yellow star for Polish Jews’, HMDT [Online]. Available at: http://hmd.org.uk/content/23111939-introduction-yellow-star-polish-jews (Accessed 20 January 2015).

Information: The National Holocaust Centre and Museum takes all reasonable measures to ensure we are not infringing on the rights of others. If you are the owner of the copyright or related rights in any of the material from our collections on this website, or you believe that the material may be subject to a third party ownership or another legal claim, and you believe its use infringes your intellectual property or any other rights, please contact us on [email protected]

We endeavour to resolve objections in a timely manner, and will withdraw affected materials from the website until the matter is resolved. The information you provide will be treated as confidential and will be used only in connection with this enquiry.