The Nazi Aryan ideal idealized blond hair and blue eyes as the signs of the “superior" race. When and in what ways does Bitton-Jackson’s blond hair and blue eyes impact her experience during the Holocaust?

When Bitton-Jackson refuses to leave her house wearing the yellow star, her mother tells her, “What’s a yellow star on a jacket? It does not kill or condemn. It does not harm. It only says you’re a Jew. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. We’re not marked for being criminals. Only for being Jews” (31). Why does Bitton-Jackson disagree with her mother about the impact of the star?

Bitton-Jackson often uses German words without directly translating them. At what points in her story does she do this, and what is the effect?