Australian writer, Margolin Royal has written a novel inspired by her father and grandparents’ story of escaping the Holocaust in 1940, through the help of Chiune Sugihara, who provided life-saving transit visas to thousands of Jewish people.

It’s a moving and interesting story, with the main character, 21 year old Rachel, who lives in Sydney in the late 60s, dealing with identity issues, family secrets, love and grief. It was a good read. 3.5⭐️

Thanks to @netgalley and @affirmpress for the ebook in return for an honest review.

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Chiune Sugihara's school taught its students the following code:
1. Don't be a burden to others.
2. Take care of others.
3. Do not expect rewards for your goodness.
After university graduation, Sugihara rose through the ranks and became Vice Chief of the Foreign Ministry in Manchuria, which the Japanese had conquered and renamed Manchukuo.Many Chinese were murdered during Occupation, and Sugihara, disgusted at this inhuman treatment and the Japanese military’s influence in the government, resigned his position there.The Japanese Foreign Ministry eventually posted Chiune Sugihara as the Japanese consul in Kaunas,Lithuania.Issuing visas was actually secondary to what was expected of Consul Sugihara in this job; the Japanese government was interested in having him spy on what the Germans and Soviets were up to.But then came the day when Sugihara awoke to find a large crowd of Jews waiting outside his consulate. These Jews hoped to obtain transit visas that were necessary to leave the Soviet Union and would enable them to stay temporarily in Japan on the way to their final destinations.The consul could not ignore the imploring faces of the people outside his gate.He consulted with his wife and made the decision to disobey his government’s orders.He knew what the consequences of his action would be, but Sugihara decided he was morally obligated to risk his future to save these human lives and endured in his decision to issue visas.Postwar, the Soviets placed the Sugihara family in a series of internment camps before finally allowing them to return to Japan.After a life of luxury as a diplomat, Sugihara was now on his own, jobless in ravaged postwar Japan. Later, he was able to put his Russian to use, working in Moscow for a trading company. He never regretted his actions for a moment,and he was visited and thanked by some of the Jews who survived because of his lifesaving visas.
Jan Zwartendijk was a Dutch businessman and also a diplomat.As director of the Philips factories in Lithuania and part-time acting consul of the Dutch government-in-exile, he supervised the writing of visas for Curacao to save Jews from the Holocaust.

This is yet another intriguing and extraordinary novel about the war, inspired by the true story of Chiune Sugihara, and all those who owe there life to him. It is a story that will get to your heart, your emotions and will make you realise what so many people had to endure during these and any other war years.

I could not put this book down and found it so enthralling and it amazes me that there are still so many more stories to tell from people who may never have spoken out about their lives, experiences and the horrors of war. Yet this one also tells of the people of our day who don't know much about these wars and some who are not at all interested in knowing.

An amazing and well written book, a story of hardship and courage, of finding your family history and sharing it with the world. This is a book everyone should read whether you are young, old or anywhere in between. It has to be a 5 star read from me for sure.

Thank you NetGalley and Affirm Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

In 1940, the Germans are poised to invade Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara is the Vice-Consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, and he defies his own government's orders and secretly issues thousands of transit visas to Jewish refugees desperate to flee.

In 1968, Rachel Margol works as a nurse in Sydney, Australia and she loves her vibrant grandmother Feika and she doesn’t have a very good relationship with her father Michael. Rachel becomes engaged to Dr. Yamni Poulos, her grandmother decides she has to tell Rachel the truth, she’s Jewish, despite going to a Catholic school and never stepping foot in a synagogue and her fiancée is an Orthodox Greek.

When Feika and Michael arrived in Australia they changed their name from Margolin to Margol and never spoke about their life in Poland, Lithuania and Japan. Rachel feels like her whole world has fallen apart, why they didn't tell her she’s Jewish sooner, her grandmother Feika is going to a reunion in Japan to see Chiune Sugihara, the man who saved their lives and Rachel decides to go with her.

They arrive in Japan, Rachel can't get over how clean it is, she’s shocked to discover her grandmother can speak Japanese and their greeted at their hotel by their tour guide Mizumi. The first place Feika wants to visit is the Jewish Cemetery, they have a rest and meet up with other survivors and many are friends of her grandmothers.

Rachel talks to Judit, she explains what life was like in Poland before the war, once the Germans invaded they slowly started taking away Jewish people’s rights and it got much worse, and that’s why Rachel’s grandparents fled to Lithuania with their son and obtained a transit visa to Japan.

I received a digital copy of the Star on the Grave by Linda Margolin Royal from Affirm Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The author’s debut novel uses real facts to create the interesting and informative narrative, how Chiune Sugihara disobeying orders, and he wrote by hand visas for thousands for Jewish refugees stranded in Lithuania, he saved their lives, including the author’s family and he’s a little known hero.

Many survivors didn’t talk about what happened to them during the Holocaust, this is what happened with the Margolin family, the story looks at the impact trauma had on people, especially children, many witnessed shocking things, the effects of this were passed on to subsequent generations and many had fears of certain situations or things.

Five stars from me, a well written and enlightening debut by Linda Margolin Royal and I enjoyed reading about Jewish traditions, ceremonies and rituals, Feika was my favourite character in the book and I'm sure the author's family are extremely proud of her.

UNLIKELY CONNECTIONS: ‘THE STAR ON THE GRAVE’ BY LINDA MARGOLIN ROYAL

Did you know that six thousand Jewish refugees were saved from murder at the hands of Nazis during WWII by escaping Europe via Japan? And that they were able to do so by the actions of a brave and committed Japanese diplomat, Chiune Sugihara, who in defiance of his government’s express orders, wrote transit visas for desperate people trying to flee from Lithuania.

He was helped in this by an official from the Netherlands, who supplied documents allowing refugees to travel through the Dutch colony of Curacao, and from there to Japan. From Japan, individuals and families found refuge in countries such as the USA and Australia.

I had never heard of either of these individuals, whose courageous and compassionate actions have been lost in the stories of that terrible war. And the connection between Japan, Poland, Lithuania and Australia seems unlikely, doesn’t it?

The Jews whose lives they saved included the author’s own family: her father and grandparents fled Poland to Lithuania, and were amongst those who owed their lives to Sugihara and the Dutch man Jan Zwartendijk. Rachael wrote this book, her first novel, to tell their story and that of the men who saved them.

In the novel, the main character Rachel is a young nurse who lives with her widowed father and has a close relationship with her Polish grandmother, Felka, whom she adores. It is Sydney in 1968. Rachel has been brought up as a Christian, attended a Catholic school, and is engaged to marry Yanni, a doctor at the hospital where she works.

When she tells Felka that she must convert to Yanni’s religion of Greek Orthodoxy on their marriage, her grandmother’s reaction is bewildering and confusing. Then Felka announces her plan to attend a reunion of friends in Japan, and asks Rachel to accompany her. She is puzzled. What is this ‘reunion’, and why Japan?

When she is told the truth of her family, she is incredulous. Her father and grandparents were among those able to get out of Europe because of Mr Sugihara. And they are Jewish. The trip to Japan is for survivors to meet with Mr Sugihara, to thank him for their lives.

Rachel’s shock and sense of betrayal at having been lied to her entire life are profound. Slowly, she begins to understand the reasons why her father and Felka did what they did: to protect her, so that she would never know the hatred and anti-Semitism that they had experienced.

She travels to Japan with Felka and there, hearing the stories of the other people saved by Sugihara, she grapples with the questions of who she is and what the revelation of being Jewish means: does it bring a heritage of suffering and loss, or of family, tradition and deep connection? Or all of those things?

And how has the trauma experienced by her surviving family members manifested in their personalities, their relationships and approaches to life?

These are all deep, deep questions she must face, and all at once. It is difficult and painful. Through travelling to Japan with Felka, listening to the people she meets there, and reappraising her own beliefs, Rachel finds some acceptance and a strong desire to learn more.

Initially, I thought Rachel’s ignorance of the events of WWII, the Nazi persecutions and concentration camps, the murders and unspeakable cruelties, was somewhat disingenuous. But I reminded myself that Rachel had come to adulthood barely twenty years after the war. She was taught the minimum details of the conflict at school, and not knowing of her personal connection to those events, did not seek to learn more. And many, many survivors, refugees and veterans, were reluctant to talk about their experiences, preferring to try to forget, to move on with life.

The Star on the Grave is a moving story of one family, fictionalised but inspired by her own, in a surprising and little-known chapter of that global conflict. I found it absorbing, and I hope to read future works by Ms Margolin Royal.

The Star on the Grave is published by Affirm Press in January 2024.
My thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a review copy.

The Star on The Grave by Linda Margolin Royal

In 1968 in Sydney, Australia Rachel Margol is a nurse and has no real family of which to speak of, just her father, Michael and her Polish grandmother, Felka. Rachel just got engaged to Yanni and seeing Yanni’s ample Greek family starts asking Felka were is her family? Why don’t they visit from Poland? but Felka says there is no one. As Rachel and Yanni’s engagement plans get more serious Felka can no longer keep silent and tells Rachel who they really are, they are Jews, from Poland who were rescued in 1940 by Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomate, he gave them papers that allowed them to escape to Japan and from there they moved to Australia. Rachel’s world is turned upside down and inside out by this revelation. When Yanni and his family find out they say Rachel needs to convert to their Greek Orthodox faith before they can marry but how can Rachel become Greek Orthodox when she does not know what it means to be Jewish? What if she converts and regrets it later?

There is only one thing Rachel can do; put a pause on her engagement and travel to Japan with Felka to find out who she really is.

I enjoyed this book very much! This is an amazing story of finding one’s roots and this novel is even more astonishing because it is based on a true story. This is Linda Margolin Royal’s first novel and its sensational!

I would like to thank Net Galley and Affirm Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.