The Woman With the Blue Star

Facilitated by Pam Jenoff

Wednesday, April 27, 2022
2:00PM - 3:00PM

  Location: Virtual Event via Zoom

1942. Sadie Gault is eigh­teen and liv­ing with her par­ents amid the hor­rors of the Kraków Ghet­to dur­ing World War II. When the Nazis liq­ui­date the ghet­to, Sadie and her preg­nant moth­er are forced to seek refuge in the per­ilous sew­ers beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buy­ing flowers.

Ella Stepanek is an afflu­ent Pol­ish girl liv­ing a life of rel­a­tive ease with her step­moth­er, who has devel­oped close alliances with the occu­py­ing Ger­mans. Scorned by her friends and long­ing for her fiancé, who has gone off to war, Ella wan­ders Kraków rest­less­ly. While on an errand in the mar­ket, she catch­es a glimpse of some­thing mov­ing beneath a grate in the street. Upon clos­er inspec­tion, she real­izes it’s a girl hiding.

Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dan­gers of the war wors­en, their lives are set on a col­li­sion course that will test them in the face of over­whelm­ing odds. Inspired by har­row­ing true sto­ries, The Woman with the Blue Star is an emo­tion­al tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of friend­ship and the extra­or­di­nary strength of the human will to survive.

Pam Jenoff is the author of sev­er­al books of his­tor­i­cal fic­tion, includ­ing the New York Times best­seller The Orphan’s Tale. She holds a degree in inter­na­tion­al affairs from George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty and a degree in his­to­ry from Cam­bridge, and she received her JD from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia. Her nov­els are inspired by her expe­ri­ences work­ing at the Pen­ta­gon and as a diplo­mat for the State Depart­ment han­dling Holo­caust issues in Poland. She lives with her hus­band and three chil­dren near Philadel­phia, where she teach­es law.

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