Number the Stars

The story centers around ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen, who lives with her family in Copenhagen in 1943. She becomes a part of the events related to the rescue of the Danish Jews, when thousands of Jews were helped to reach neutral ground in Sweden and avoid being deported to concentration camps. She risks her life to help her best friend, Ellen Rosen, by pretending that Ellen is Annemarie's late older sister Lise, who had died earlier in the war. Lise had been killed as a result of her work with the Danish Resistance. The story's title is taken from a reference to Psalm 147, in which the writer relates that God has numbered all the stars in the universe. It ties into the Star of David, worn by Ellen on her necklace, which is symbolic to the story.