Number the Stars

What does Annemarie think about the "ordinary people" (like herself and the Rosens) and their role during wartime in occupied Denmark?

How does her point of view change throughout the novel?

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From the text:

For a moment she felt frightened. But she pulled the blanket up higher around her neck and relaxed. It was all imaginary, anyway— not real. It was only in the fairy tales that people were called upon to be so brave, to die for one another. Not in real-life Denmark. Oh, there were the soldiers; that was true. And the courageous Resistance leaders, who sometimes lost their lives; that was true, too.

But ordinary people like the Rosens and the Johansens?

Annemarie admitted to herself, snuggling there in the quiet dark, that she was glad to be an ordinary person who would never be called upon for courage.

Over the course of the novel, Annemarie find out that she isn't merely an ordinary person...... neither is her mother, her uncle, or anyone else who sacrifices to help the Jews. Mr. and Mrs. Rosen are also brave...... they hand over their daughter to others for her protection, something that must have been very difficult to do. Annemarie doesn't realize what lengths she will go to in order to help those she loves..... in order to help a friend. She isn't ordinary..... she is extraordinary.

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Number the Stars