The Author of ‘Number the Stars’ Still Believes in Human Decency 

Recently I participated in a conversation at my synagogue in Nashville about how to teach the Holocaust to our children. The table was long and the guest list spanned generations. One common concern was keeping this devastating event alive, especially amidst today’s antisemitism. 

The ideal way to teach, in my opinion, is through literature. One of the few crossovers between my own elementary school curriculum and my children’s is “Number the Stars,” written by Lois Lowry in 1989. The novel is historical fiction and tells the story of a 10-year-old Danish girl who helps hide her Jewish best friend from the Nazis during World War II.

When I mentioned the Newberry award-winning book, another woman in the group told us that Lowry was coming to Nashville to speak at a neighboring synagogue. My 12-year-old son’s eyes lit up as I shared this news with him. He had just finished “The Giver,” another one of Lowry’s masterpieces, and loved it. 

Together we went to the sold out event and I watched him sit with rapt attention (a rare occurrence at his age) while Lowry discussed her inspiration for “Number the Stars.” At 89, Lowry is lively, engaging and warmhearted — and she graciously agreed to an interview with me. Enjoy. Share. Remember. That is how we’ll continue to teach our children about the past. 

With this new wave of antisemitism — and as we get further away from the Holocaust in history — stories about the Holocaust are more important than ever. You did such a wonderful job approaching the topic from a spot of hope instead of fear. How can parents and educators continue to educate young people about these essential lessons?

I think it is desperately important… because time is short now for those survivors who are left… that young people hear the true stories from those who endured it. Many of those narratives are available online if you go to the USC Shoah Foundation Visual Archive. But there are also survivors, elderly now, who are both eloquent and willing to tell their stories to local audiences. Seeing and hearing them, realizing that they went on to have families and futures, does provide hope, I think.

You released “Number the Stars” in a pre-internet world. Kids now crave Roblox and YouTube, not reading. At the same time, they receive information — sometimes false — at an unprecedented rate. How do you appeal to their attention spans in your writing?

Like all writers, I view my task as finding ways to make readers want to turn pages. “Number the Stars” is a good example of that because each chapter ends with a sort of cliffhanger, a device that entices the reader to want to know more. 

Recently I had a very touching email from a mother who described her son as a very reluctant reader, until he read “Number the Stars” and came to her and said, “Feel my heart. It’s pounding. I can’t stop reading.” Of course it’s pretty easy to create suspense in a book; the hard part is to make the content valuable enough to justify it. Fortunately there are many fine writers out there who devote themselves to just that.

Holocaust books keep getting ensnared in school book bans, sometimes with the explanation that they contain “divisive topics.” Has your book ever been banned in schools and what is your take on this movement?

I am wholeheartedly opposed to book banning and have experienced it many times with my own books… though never with “Number the Stars,” at least that I’m aware of. I have often pointed out to audiences that the Third Reich began, as all Fascist regimes have, with suppression of free speech. 

Interestingly, today “Number the Stars” is a popular book, in translation, among German schoolchildren — a good example of Santayana’s famous remark that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Germany takes its Holocaust education very seriously.

In the afterward of “Number the Stars” you describe the gift of a world of human decency. How can young people continue that gift today? What advice would you give young people today who want to help their neighbors?

Another book of mine, “Tree. Table. Book.” features an 11-year-old girl who develops a close and loving relationship with her neighbor, an elderly widow. Through their conversation she learns of her Jewish friend’s childhood in Poland and her escape from the Holocaust. There is a Jewish school outside of Boston which has created a relationship with an Assisted Living community and has used this book as a vehicle for creating relationships that allow this transmission of narratives. 

Human decency emerges from human relationships, and I think we must find ways to nurture these cross-generational pairings in which wisdom and experience can affect young hearts that are still open and receptive.  

The 10-year-old protagonist in “Number the Stars” had to take a major step of bravery to help her Jewish friend escape Denmark. What moral choices do you think children face today? Do you think today’s young readers face a different world — and set of problems — than when you released “Number the Stars” in 1989?

Sadly today’s children are growing up in a time when our country is deeply divided politically, and too frequently hatred and discrimination are presented as acceptable choices. We as voters and participants can’t sit idly by; we have to stand up and speak out and guide the next generation.

I had the pleasure of reading “The Giver” for the first time with my son (it was released after I was in middle school) and I see similar themes to “Number the Stars.” “The Giver” also takes place in a world devoid of color and choice; both protagonists receive major assignments and go on physical journeys. Yet both stories end with a note of optimism. How do you find optimism in today’s new version of dystopia?

Over recent years… especially during the pandemic… I talked by Zoom to countless classrooms in many countries… from Brazil to Korea to Nepal and even once, amazingly, Iran… around the world. In most cases it was to high school students because they had to have studied English long enough that we could converse in my language. They were fascinated by dystopian literature, and here is what gave me a real sense of optimism: Without exception, in every country, the students asked me, “how can we keep this from happening?”

That is a question that doesn’t have easy answers. But it is so important that we try.