Author(s): Theo Coster

Historical

In 1941, Theo Coster was a student at the Amsterdam Jewish Lyceum, one in a class of 28 Jewish children that the Nazis had segregated from the rest of the Dutch population. Among Theo's fellow students was a young Anne Frank, whose diary would later become one of the most important documents of the Holocaust. In this remarkable group portrait, Coster and five of his fellow classmates gather their personal stories and memories of Anne. The accounts collected here do not just help us to rediscover Anne Frank. They also stand on their own as remarkable stories of ingenuity and survival during the Holocaust--from Albert Gomes de Mesquita, who hid in ten different towns across Europe--to Hannah Goslar, who experienced the horrors of Bergen-Belsen but also made a miraculous reconnection with Anne days before her death. One day a few children simply didn't show up. That's how it started. The next day someone else was gone. Little by little the classrooms became emptier. Children changed places, just so they could sit closer together. No one dared to ask aloud where those children had gone. The one thing we were sure of, is that they weren't absent because they were ill. I too ended up in the list of absentees without anyone knowing what was wrong with me or where I was. - Theo Coster What happened to Anne Frank is known to dozens of millions of people around the world. But what would have happened to her Jewish classmates? Her former classmate, Theo Coster, 80 years old and one of the survivors, asked the same question. He goes in search of classmates from their first year at the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam. Who have survived the war, what is their story and what are their memories of Anne Frank? Anne was just sixteen years old when she died in the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, shortly before the end of the war. Through her diary she later became world famous. These are the stories of her classmates who survived and remained unknown. This book is based on the material that Theo and his crew shot for an award winning documentary: The Classmates of Anne Frank . Together with the film, it forms an important legacy, not just for Theo's grandchildren, but for all people of all ages. In Theo's own words: It wasn't about me; it was about leaving something behind. Something tangible - the book had to be like a legacy - for future generations so they will be able to imagine what it was like to be a child during the war. The everyday and the extraordinary, the moments of good fortune and the unimaginable suffering, the cruel randomness of fate. I hope that this book will contribute to a better understanding of the personal histories of children at a time of war. Children should never become victims of the intolerant ideas of adults. Praise for We All Wore Stars A marvelous book which beautifully complements Anne Frank's diary. A must-read for anyone interested in the lives of Anne's Jewish contemporaries in Nazi-occupied Holland during WW2