The Star People

 Baby Porter

July 3, 1939,
Hooray! Today I’m nine years old. My Mommy and Daddy have a huge birthday party planned for me! I’m going to eat cake, open presents, and play with my friends. Though I am a little worried it won’t be as great as I want it to be. Mommy and Daddy have been arguing a lot about money and a bad man named Adolf Pitter, or something like that. Of course I’m not SUPER worried, my Bubby always takes care of me. He has always given me the best presents, and as I walk outside, I knew shouldn’t have been worried. There are balloons, presents, cake, homemade ice cream, and all my family and friends. Suddenly big arms surround me. As I look up, I stare into the big brown eyes of my Bubby. Bubby’s real name is Aden Porter, but he says it’s ok to call him Bubby, unless he’s with his friends. Anyway, Bubby pulls me aside and in a strong voice, for a boy of eighteen, he says,
“Baby Porter, my little sister, is all grown up. Too bad I didn’t get her a present.” I know he’s joking though. He always gives me something great.
“Don’t lie Bubby, God doesn’t like liars.” I say and then stick my tongue out.
“You’re right, I gave you the best present of all. Way better than these other gifts, which are way lame, if you ask me. But you have to wait until later to get it, ok?” He says.
Bubby has never made me wait for a gift before. I agree, only if he tells me what Mommy got me. With a heavy sigh, he tells me Mommy got me a locket. I’m so excited to open presents now.  Soon I’ve rejoined my party and am playing with my two best friends, Liesel Taylor and Peter Vonburg. I think they had a little too much cake, because I could not get a word in to tell them about my locket. So I just started daydreaming about my other gifts. Suddenly Liesel asked me when I would get my star.
“What star?” I asked
“I heard my mommy say that all the people that were like your family had to have a yellow star stitched to their clothes. When are you going to get yours?”
“ I heard that too Liesel! Mom said it had something to do with men in hats.” Said Peter. Peter is ten years old, and before today he was two years older than Liesel and I. So most things Peter says is wise because he is so much older than us.
I’m not blind, or stupid. I’ve seen the stars of David on other Jewish peoples. I just didn’t know it had to be everyone who was Jewish. As for the men in hats, I did my best to stay away from them, they scared me. They always looked at Mommy and I with disgust whenever we went to buy food for the house. So I learned to look at the ground when we went around street corners. I also heard of the fights that broke out between the star people and the men in hats, but fights happened before too. I wasn’t worried.
Finally I could open my presents! I was so ready! I opened Grandmama’s present first, and inside were two oranges and nine homemade sugar cookies. I love sugar cookies! Especially when Grandmama Porter makes them. Next I opened Liesel’s present, and sitting on top of the prettiest drawing of the sunset I’ve ever seen, was a delicate bracelet, with a silver puppy dangling from the silver chain. Liesel held up her arm to show me a matching one, indicating these were friendship bracelets. Suddenly, Peter rushed up to me to hand me his gift.
“Mine is homemade Baby! It’s especially for you.” Peter exclaimed. Looking at me with big blue eyes.
I opened this present cautiously; last year Peter gave me a mouse he had caught in a box. As soon as I opened this gift I saw why he was so proud of it. Inside the box sat a petite wooden doll, no doubt carved by Peter’s father. Though it wasn’t the doll itself that attracted my attention, this doll had the most beautifully painted eyes I had ever seen.
“My dad carved the doll and painted it, but I told him he wouldn’t get your eyes right. So I did them. Do you like it?” Peter asked me unabashedly.
In a tiny whisper I said, “Yes Peter, I like this a lot. Thank You.”
And I gave him a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek.  Very soon, pink crept up his neck and onto his face. Ignoring his embarrassment I found the small box from Mommy and Daddy. I opened this box very slowly, inside I found a heart shaped gold locket, upon opening the locket I found a picture of my family, smiling ear to ear. I was crying like a seven year old, it was so wonderful. Soon after I settled down and wiped my face, and I looked up at my Mommy to give her a big girl hug, only to see my Daddy’s hand cupped around a Star of David. One you could sew onto your cloak. I looked at my Daddy quizzically, he only nodded and put it in my hands and closed my palms around it.
Very soon my friends and family left, and I went inside after my long day. As I turned the corner to the hallway I ran smack into Bubby. Then I remembered Bubby still hasn’t given me his present! Though he couldn’t read my mind, Bubby always knew what I was thinking, so he pulled me into a huge hug and told me to wait outside his room. I did, and as I waited I heard lots of rustling around and finally he popped back out. In his hand he held a beautifully carved mahogany jewelry box, etched in to it was my name “Baby<3”. It was so pretty. It was definitely worth waiting a whole day for. With my new gifts in hand, I lay in my bed and drifted into a strange dream filled with sugar cookies and men in hats.



Deborah Porter
July 3, 1939
     I could not believe my husband would give our daughter that star, on her birthday! I wanted her to have one day when she didn’t hear about Hitler’s take over of Germany, or the Nazi party’s violence against the Jewish people. Sometimes Elias doesn’t think. I made sure he knew that too.
     “Elias! How dare you give her that forsaken star? On her birthday! One day Elias! One day is all I wanted for her to have, and you took that away from her.” I screamed at him.
     “What did you want me to do Deborah? Make her oblivious to what is going on out there? What if we were taken tomorrow? She would have no idea what would be happening, and she would be terrified! Do you think I wanted to give her that star? Hitler has turned the star of our people into a sign of foreboding. Deb, look, you have no idea how angry I am. Giving our nine year old that star made me more furious than I’ve been in a long time. I am sorry I ruined her birthday, but she didn’t seem to mind. Deborah, I know I’m asking a lot of you, but you need to sew that star on her cloak tomorrow. Also, tomorrow, we need to start wearing our stars on our cloaks as well. The last thing we need are the Nazi’s being pissed at us, and have them thinking we don’t know our place.” Said Elias
     I hate how much sense my husband makes. It is incredibly irritating sometimes. Sensitivity is not Elias’s strong suit, but that is why we work. He’s the Reason I’m the Emotion. After a long night I collapsed into my mattress oblivious to the terrible future that awaited my family.

Aden Porter
July 27, 1939
     
     After my sister’s birthday party, things basically went on as usual. Until of course, I let my temper get away with me again. It happened like this, I was walking down the street minding my own business, when a stupid Nazi Gestapo officer spit on me! I wasn’t angry at first, to be completely honest. I know I wasn’t angry because I walked away. Then this “man” had the audacity to mumble under his breath “Dirty Jew, Ze Swine.” I know it’s something we are supposed to deal with this kind of behavior now, but I just lost it. I wheeled around and stared this man directly in his soulless, blue eyes. I couldn’t help myself. I confronted this Nazi with conversation at first.
     “What did you say to me?” I asked, incredulously.
     “I said, Dirty Jew, Ze are Swine!” He hollered, unintentionally, flinging spit in my face.
     “Listen here, baby killer. I don’t go around calling you a stupid blonde, do I? No, I don’t, because it’s just plain rude. You should apologize.” I stated, my voice trembling with anger.
     He just stared at me as if I were a talking squirrel.
     “Me? Apologize to ze likes of you? Never.” He said so calmly it took everything I had not to pummel him right there.
     “You are filth, your family are filth, everyone zat where’s zat star, is, filth!” He screams.
     Now here’s the thing about testosterone, whether you want to or not, in tense situations your fists get a little punch happy. At that moment, my fist connected with his lower jaw. He just fell, like a giant with his legs tied together. Suddenly I realized I’ve probably doomed my family. I had never run so fast in my life, my cloak trailing behind me in the breeze. I knew we were all destined for labor camps at that exact moment. I busted through the door, probably looking like a mad man. My father jumped up with a start, but saw it was me and sat back down. My mother, looked at me like she knew exactly what had occurred and as calm as can be she asked,
     “Aden, what have you done?”
Elias Porter
July 27, 1939
     “My son has doomed us all.” It’s all I can think about as I rush around the house packing things we’ll need and things I couldn’t bear to leave behind. I know it’s only a matter of time before there are Nazi’s banging on my door. I just can’t believe Aden punched a Nazi! How ignorant can that boy be? He knows what the Nazi army has done. Even though he was aware of this, he punched a Nazi, a Gestapo Officer! Suddenly I’m snapped out of my internal rant when I hear a small knock on the door. I don’t want to open it, but Baby is already there, turning the knob. I cringe, waiting for the gunshots and yelling. As I loosen up, to stare an officer I realize this German child is a little short to be enlisted. Then my mind comes back to me and I realize it’s Baby’s friend Peter Vonburg. I could have hugged that young man right there.
     “Gutentag Mr. Porter.” Peter states, not realizing he had scared my out of my socks.
     “Gutentag Peter, you all go out and play now. I am extremely busy this afternoon.” I tell the children. Getting them out of my way to do mine and Deborah’s packing in secret.
     I wheel around to face my wife. I take one, long look at her. It may be my last. I drink in her warm, brown eyes, the small curve of her mouth, and her regal high cheekbones. I don’t know if I’ve ever told her how beautiful she is. Just as I turn to tell my wife exactly how much I love her, our world is turned upside down.

Baby Porter
July 27, 1939
     “Something’s wrong.” The men in hats had never come to our house before, especially five of them at the same time. As they approached the yard, I saw they held guns. One of them, looked like his jaw was uneven with the rest of his face, and he looked the angriest. This man knocked on the door at first, and then he just kicked it down. I am so afraid. Where’s Daddy? Where’s Bubby? They’re supposed to be here to protect me. But only one man was concerned with me, and he gently tugged my arm and pulled me to an awaiting car. He sat me down inside and locked the doors. Suddenly the man that kicked down our door is pulling Bubby out of our house by his shirt. Suddenly Bubby is thrown on the ground and it’s all I can do to not break the windows to get to my big brother. This man starts kicking my Bubby while he is curled up on the ground. I see my brother’s blood pour out of his nose and mouth as this man lands a straight kick to my Bubby’s nose.
     Then the man pulls Bubby on his feet and takes him to another car directly in front of the one I’m in. Before the man shoves Bubby in the car, Bubby gives me a look that showed so many emotions my young brain couldn’t decipher them. It was just at this moment that I see my parents being dragged out of the house. My father is screaming curses at these men, and my mother is pliantly walking alongside them. My mother and I are put in the same car. My father is in the same one as Bubby. We sit tight and wait for the men to drive us away.

Ivan Bulishka
July 27, 1939
     “I’m not a bad person, I’m not a bad person.” Is all that would play in my head as I drive away to the concentration camp in Munich. I don’t think about the two females in the back of my car, I don’t think about how this family will probably never be together again, and I definitely don’t think about how this little girl, with big brown eyes and curly hair, will never see her brother again. This family would have been safe for a long while if her brother hadn’t have hit a Gestapo. Even being an S.S. officer, I know hitting a high rank official is never a good idea.

Baby Porter
July 27, 1939
     Finally the men brought us to a fenced in camp. The gates looked one hundred feet high! Each corner of the fence had a tower, and in every tower were more men in hats. Each with guns pointed down at us. My mother can’t contain herself. I hear her sob heavily. Eventually we get to a line, and we wait for what seems like eternity.
I'm so scared daddy!
"I know baby"
Will they hurt mommy and us?
"I don't know"
I look at the yellow star of David stitched on my cloak, I look at Daddy's and Mommy's and my Bubby's. The line is moving for us now, we walk closer and closer to the men in hats. One's handing out uniforms the other is pointing to a scary room. They speak to us in German
"You! How old is the girl there?"
"7" My daddy says
I wanted to tell my Daddy I have been nine for almost a month. The look my daddy gave me told me to shut my little mouth
"The boy?"
"17"
My bubby burst into tears. My Bubby? Bubby doesn't cry, Bubby is a big boy of 18.
     "Bubby? I love you"
I gave Bubby my ear- to- ear smile. He looked at me like my old Bubby again then the man in the hat pointed my Bubby towards the scary room. My Bubby looked terrified, like he had seen a ghost. My daddy walked with Bubby all the way to the scary room. Mommy burst into tears next
"Mooommmy? They'll be back. Bubby just wanted a uniform, but those men didn't give him one, so he got reeeaaal sad and Daddy went to make him feel better."
Then the man in the hat gave my Mommy and me over sized uniforms. We got into a train car packed full of the star people like me and Mommy and Daddy and Bubby. As the car started to move the men in hats threw moldy bread halves down into the exposed room, Mommy and me weren't hungry, but the star people turned into monsters. Mommy and me was dragged into the frenzy, we were trampled to death. I died in my Mommy's arms, I died content, and I couldn't wait to see God in heaven. Mommy said Daddy and Bubby would be there too, waiting for us to come home.