The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark

This is a visually and textually charming book, which revives the myth of how King Christian of Denmark resisted anti-Semitism under Nazi occupation. According to the story, which first emerged in 1943, he insisted on being the first to wear the prescribed yellow star as he rode amongst his loyal people, and thus created the solidarity that caused them all to do the same. The implication is that this gesture saved most of the Jews of Denmark. As the informative appendix admits, it is a myth, but one that should be seen as inspiring in a time of threatened human rights.

Yes, but wasn’t it also a piece of nationalist propaganda designed to rescue Denmark’s pride after its failure to resist the Nazi invasion? This is a genuinely problematical, issue-raising book, and as such invaluable, as long as the children reading it are helped to find between the lines more of the story than they will find at first sight between the covers.

(http://www.dchf.dk/publications/books_and_articles/kingandthestar2.html , website of the Danish Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, provides some interesting background information on the legend.)