The Flag with Fifty-Six Stars: A Gift from the Survivors of Mauthausen

I love this story!  Susan Goldman Rubin's The Flag with Fifty-Six Stars:  A gift from the Survivors of Mauthausen is beautiful.  Mauthausen is one of the most notorious death camps and to read such a wonderful story of survival and hope is awe inspiring.  The book begins with a simplistic introduction of how Mauthausen came to be, with quotes from survivors, soldiers and townspeople included.  A great list of references and resources is included at the end of the book.


The story of the impending liberation and the creation of the American flag follows.  Each page is accompanied by haunting illustrations by Bill Farnsworth.  The drawings are so realistic that you'd think that they are photographs.

The story continues with the prisoners covertly creating an American flag using scraps of Nazi banners and prisoner uniforms.  The inmates knew the flag had thirteen red and white stripes, but had to guess at the number of stars.  The flag had an extra row of stars:  fifty-six, instead of the forty-eight.  All of this occurred during a time when the camp inmates new the Allies were near.  They hoped freedom was imminent.  The flag was presented to Colonel Seibel and flown over the camp as it was liberated.  The flag is now in the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, California.