BENEATH WHITE STARS: Holocaust Profiles In Poetry

Original narrative poems, historical accounts, with black and white, pen and ink illustrations.

Beneath White Stars features Holly’s narrative poetry about real people from the Holocaust whom she has known personally or whose stories she has taught. Melding historical detail and keen insights with the grace of poetry, she brings to life a wide variety of individuals struggling against the horrors of the Holocaust. In these pages children are sent from home to face new lands alone, teens risk their lives to resist in ghettos and forests, prisoners rise above the miseries of ghettos and concentration camps through art, and diplomats and clergy employ their wiles to save all those they can. Brief biographical sketches, maps, and a personalized timeline further animate these courageous individuals.

Illuminated by Byron Marshall’s black and white, pen and ink drawings, Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Poetry opens a unique window on bright lights that shone even in the darkest of times.

"Everyone in the field of Holocaust Studies, education, and remembrance is asking the same question: After the last survivor is no longer, who will remember, who will tell their stories? In powerful poetry, brief historical explanations, and moving sketches, Holly Mandelkern has shown that it is possible to become a witness to the witnesses and thus to convey their stories in another powerful format to a new generation. Having been privileged to know many of the survivors and witnesses she portrays, I was impressed with the depth of her knowledge and moved by the authenticity of her testimony."
-MICHAEL BERENBAUM, Professor of Jewish Studies, American Jewish University, and former Project Director, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

"Beneath White Stars is a marvelous, imaginative, and hallowed remembering of the Shoah that illustrates the poet's gift for evoking the unutterable within the rhythms of loss, deprivation, and the reclamation of human dignity."
-REVEREND MARK FORRESTER, University Chaplain and Director of Religious Life at Vanderbilt University

"A sensational read, bringing history to life in a poetic form, humane and edifying, touching the heart and mind."
-TESS WISE, survivor, Holocaust scholar, and founder of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida

"I've been a Holocaust educator for almost forty years. Even with this background, there were new people whom I was privileged to 'meet' in this magnificent book. These poems touched my heart."
-RABBI FRED GUTTMAN, Mid-Atlantic Regional Director of the International March of the Living and Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Greensboro, NC

"Just when we think that everything has been written about the Holocaust, Holly Mandelkern presents this meditation on the subject that allows readers to feel events in a new way. Holly's poems and lovingly rendered text take readers by the hand and in an intimate way lead us into the personal reality of each individual's life."
-Philip M. Smith, PhD, Department of History, Texas A&M University

"In a spectrum of soundings, forms, and styles, we are restored the voices of man, woman, and child, multiplied by millions... Holly Mandelkern's scholarship and mastery of verse elevate the hardest, and often most poignant, lessons of life, death, and life again."
-AL ROCHELEAU, author of On Writing Poetry

"Through this poetry, we are able to sense the life and indomitable spirit of the persecuted."
- HENRY BIRNBREY, survivor and Holocaust educator, Breman Museum, Atlanta, GA

"The poems bring to life a chorus of varied voices portraying in fine, poetic fashion life's lessons in survival, recovery, and redemption. These powerfully spiritual voices come to life, remain memorable."
-STEPHEN CALDWELL WRIGHT, PhD, poet and educator, President and Founder of the Gwendolyn Brooks Writers Association of Florida

"Historical context and original illustrations accompanying her poems provide a unique and valuable resource for Holocaust students of all ages."
-HARRIET SEPINWALL, EdD, Professor Emerita, College of Saint Elizabeth Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education, Morristown, NJ