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Home > Virtual Museum > CHGS Exhibitions > Fragments : The Star

The Star

Jewish star belonging to Duifie (Delia) Van Haren, Holland.

"I had no choice but to wear the star."

Item 93.08.0202

Wedding of Sallie Schryver and Flora Mendel, Amsterdam, 1942.  This photo shows the star being worn by the bride and groom.

Grade 8 class, Jewish Montessori Lyceum, autumn 1942.  Louise Stein Sorenson, age 13, top row, third from left.

Story of the Artifact

"I lived in the small town of Gorinchem, Holland, where everyone knew me and knew that I was Jewish.  I had no choice but to wear the star.  I even had to wear the star on my wedding day.  After I went into hiding, I think that the star was hidden in our family photograph album that was left in safekeeping with our non-Jewish neigbour.  Of the twenty three Jewish families in Gorinchem, only three people are know to have survived: my brother and I and one other person."

Duifie (Delia) Van Haren, survived in hiding for three years.

Background

Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the Nazi Security Police, was the first to propose the use of the Jewish star as a distinctive identification mark for Jews.  In 1939, all Polish Jews were required to wear the star.  This requirement was later extended to Russia, Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe.

Germany invaded Holland in May 1940 and by April 1942, every Dutch Jew aged six and over was required to wear a six pointed Star of David when they appeared in public.  The yellow star or an armband with a blue star was sewn or pinned on a shirt or coat.  The punishment for not wearing a badge was a fine, imprisonment, or execution.

Although there are many such Jewish stars still in existence, most of them were either thrown away or destroyed during the Holocaust.  Jewish stars were removed from the clothing of Jews deported to the death camps, before the clothing was sent to Germany for use by German civilians.