In “the Shawl” Rosa says that Magda’s hair is “as yellow as the Star sewn in to Rosa’s coat.” We will look at the Yellow Star, or the Star of David, in further detail. During the Middle Ages Jewish citizens had sometimes been forced to wear an icon to identify themselves (a pointed hat was commonplace), and during the Holocaust of the mid-20th century Jews also had to wear a badge, this time in the form of a yellow star. This was a way to identify Jews and make it easier to deport them, as well as to humiliate them as inferior beings.
The symbols of two equilateral triangles overlaid to form a star. It originated in antiquity but it was not until the Jewish community in Prague started to frequently use it as a symbol in the 16th century that it gained currency. It has no biblical or Talmudic authority but is nonetheless a universally-adopted emblem. During WWI, philosopher Franz Rosenzweig wrote on postcards describing the interlocking triangles: “the corners of one representing creation, revelation, and redemption; the corners of the other representing Man, the World and God.”
The requirement began to appear after the Kristallnacht pogrom in November of 1938 and was made mandatory after Germany’s invasion of Poland in September, 1939. All Jews in the newly-occupied Polish territories had to wear them, as did those Jews in the Soviet lands and other German satellite states.
The stars were on coarse yellow cloth, and outlined in thick black lines and mock-Hebraic type was the word “Jew.” Jewish shops also had to display the star.
The Holocaust Center explains, “The German government’s policy of forcing Jews to wear identifying badges was but one of many psychological tactics aimed at isolating and dehumanizing the Jews of Europe, directly marking them as being different (i.e., inferior) to everyone else. It allowed for the easier facilitation of their separation from society and subsequent ghettoization, which ultimately led to the deportation and murder of 6 million Jews. Those who failed or refused to wear the badge risked severe punishment, including death. For example, the Jewish Council (Judenrat) of the ghetto in Bialystok, Poland announced that ‘… the authorities have warned that severe punishment—up to and including death by shooting—is in store for Jews who do not wear the yellow badge on back and front.’”
