Yellow Star had some not so small controversy initially because it is a legend. And here we were how dare you tell a legend because it didn’t rise up out of the mist of time. And that was my point. And I had to really wrangle with this in my own conscience, in my own soul. I love this story. It didn’t, I didn’t look for it; it came and sat on my lap and swung its little legs with its paten leather shoes. I was at a festival. I was there to see Donald Davis, incredible American storyteller. I never heard Donald Davis, because next to me sat a man that was, at very least an octogenarian. And he wanted to talk the entire time that Donald Davis was telling his stories.
And I am a Cuban woman brought up by a Cuban woman. I could not tell this elderly man that I didn’t want to hear him or he had to be quiet or I was here to hear someone else. I just kept nodding my head and getting more and more frustrated and he just kept saying and have you heard the one about the Yellow Star, because that’s an incredible story. You know that King Christian the 10th of Demark actually wore it, blah and blah and blah.
And then the program was over, everyone stood up and started to applaud and I had this niggling feeling that I had just heard something important and I turned around and this gentleman is gone. I don’t see him again. I was at the National Storytelling Festival. I don’t find him. No one’s seen him. I call a friend of mine, a rabbi, Fred Davidow (ph.) and I ask Fred, “Fred, have you ever heard this story?” And this is what happened to me.
He goes, “Well, first of all, I have heard of it. Secondly, what just happened to you sometimes we say in the Jewish faith that the prophet Elijah comes down to earth, tells you something you need to know and bang the little man’s gone.” And I said, “Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha.” And I laughed with him over it and then later in quieter moments I thought I’d like to believe that, I’d like to think that it was a wonderful moment.
So I did a lot of research. And I discovered that there are absolutely no extent documents, there are no photographs. All that exists is a cartoon that came out in the London Times that had the king on horseback with a Star of David saying that he would be the first to wear it. Now there were witnesses who had heard the king argue with a German officer saying, “If you press this issue of the yellow star with Danish subjects I will be the first one to wear it.” It was his threat that became legend.
The story of King Christian taking, threatening to take down the flag, same thing. The Nazi flag went up, the king had it taken down. They took down the Danish flag, put the Nazi flag back up. He had it taken down again. Well, now he has a general in front of him and the general says, “You send another soldier to take down that flag and I will shoot him,” and the king said, “Then prepare to shoot the king.”
It didn’t fly again. But the king, I mean, it was difficult. It was a difficult time. And then it didn’t fly again for a period of time. Actually I’ve never known exactly if it just didn’t fly throughout the rest of the occupation. And we all know the marvelous story about Lois Lowry, Number the Stars, where she references this legend. And it’s told in Jerusalem. He is a righteous gentile. Christian the 10th.
Addressing legends, by naming a legend, we call it a legend. In other words, there’s no proof this ever happened. Should we then let legends die? Why do we have them? Why do we have them during the darkest times? Because they’re unbearable, because they’re untenable, because the things we’ve witnessed we cannot, our psyches can’t comprehend. And so we create mythic characters. We create moments. Some might say “Oh, so that we can pretend what happened didn’t happen.” I don’t think that’s it. I think it’s to give us a blueprint for the time when it comes again. So I believe we need them.