The Missing Star - Julie A. Canepa - Bog

It is 1943 during the height of WWII and seventeen-year-old Vlada Munk, a Czech Jew, has sworn off any thoughts of romance. Imprisoned by the Nazis within the walls of the Jewish ghetto at Terezin, his courtships have taken tragic turns as his love interests are forced aboard trains and deported to the "East." Vlada throws himself into his work as the camp locksmith, but his resolve is tested on a spring day in 1943 when he spots the dark-haired and confident beauty, Kitty Löwi, walking down the street of the camp. Vlada and Kitty's comfortable childhoods have been shattered by the illegitimate Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, and they bond over their shared commonalities: denied an education, forced to give up beloved family pets, and made to wear the yellow star publicly branding them as Jews, they then endure one more indignity. They are deported to the Terezin ghetto, a place where death is delayed, not deferred. Vlada and Kitty's love is a bright spot amidst the camp's overcrowding, hunger, and daily fear of Nazi retribution. When Vlada is forced aboard a train bound for Auschwitz, Kitty is left behind in Terezin. Will they overcome all odds and honor their pledge to reunite in a world brighter than the one in which they've met? Based on a true coming-of-age story of love and loss, hope and survival, The Missing Star is ultimately the story of the resilient heart.