The Flag with Fifty-six Stars: A Gift from the Survivors of Mauthausen.
The Flag with Fifty-six Stars: A Gift from the Survivors of Mauthausen. Rubin, Susan Goldman; ill. Farnsworth, Bill; Holiday House, 2005.
Grade Level: 3-5
ISBN-10: 0-823-41653-4 (hardcover); $16.95
ISBN-10: 0-823-42019-1 (paperback); $ 6.95
Synopsis: This is a brief yet moving true story of a “special” concentration camp. It was started in 1938 to house people who were opposed to Hitler and the Nazis. While living and working there some of the prisoners heard that the Americans may be nearby and that there’s a good chance they will be rescued before Hitler kills them. To show their gratitude the prisoners pool their resources and make a flag with which to greet their liberators, the American soldiers.
General Review: Booklist
Gr. 4-6. When the Americans liberated Austria's Mauthausen concentration camp, a group of survivors presented the commander with an American flag they had secretly sewn from scraps, a symbol of their hope and gratitude. Now that flag (which the prisoners inadvertently made with an extra row of stars) hangs in Los Angeles' Simon Wiesenthal Center and Library Archives, named in honor of the famous Mauthausen survivor. Through the story of that flag, this stirring picture book for older children tells the history of the brutal labor camp and its liberation. There is none of the festivity of Margaret Wild's Let the Celebrations Begin! (1991). Rubin draws on eyewitness accounts and extensive interviews with liberators and prisoners, including Wiesenthal, to document the suffering, the resistance, and, finally, the hope. Farnsworth's somber, dark, unframed paintings show the camp and the marching laborers as well as close-ups of emaciated people sewing in the shadows--and then, free at last. Hazel Rochman
General Themes: Mauthausen (concentration camp), World War, 1939-1945, Concentration camps, Liberation-Germany, Flags-American, History
Author Information:
Illustrator Information:
www.childresillustrators.com/illustrator.cgi/harley
Discussion Questions: Standard 3, Benchmark 3
1. Why did some people survive life in the concentration camp and others died?
2. This is a true story. What were the other things going on around Mauthausen at this
time?
3. What do you know about concentration camps? Where can you learn more?
4. Why do you think Mauthausen was kept as a secret from the world?
5. How did the inmates help the Allies win the war? Why was this important to them?
6. What is hope? Why does it figure so prominently in this book?
Activities:
1. Visit online the Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Center.
/ww.museumoftolerance.com/ List five things you learned. Why is tolerance important in today’s world? Standard 3 Benchmark 3
2. Have you ever felt hopeless? Write about it. Brainstorm in a small group things a
person can do to regain hope. Standard 2 Benchmark 2
3. There is a saying: History repeats itself. What are things you can do so that this
period in our history is not repeated. There are many resources listed on pp.37-39.
Standard 5 Benchmark 3
4. Interview someone who has been discriminated against because of race, religious
views and/or non-traditional beliefs. Share what you learned with your class.
Standard 5 Benchmark 3
5. Locate Austria and Mauthausen on a map. How does its location lend itself to secrecy?
Standard 3 Benchmark 2
6. Draw a timeline for the events chronicled in this story, beginning in 1938. Standard 3
Benchmark 1