I've always loved the Diary of Anne Frank so when I saw this book I knew I had to read it. I was expecting a book full of stories of Anne. What I got was a book of the stories of the classmates of Anne and what happened to them during the war. You can barely make a connection between these people and Anne Frank. It almost seems like a gimick to sell books because theres barely any stories of Anne in it. But if you get passed that it was an ok book, but I've read better memory books about the Holocaust. ( )

It is fashionable for a reviewer to establisher his bona fides by mentioning extensive experience with the topic at hand. When it comes to the Holocaust, such a maneuver seems particularly crass. A thousand memoirs read are as nothing compared to a tattoo on the arm. But the memoirists themselves do us a great service. The most valuable of these accounts allow us to bear witness to the capacity for the greatest evil, and in its wake, the greatest resilience and will to survive. And they offer up the weight of an almost unimaginable emotional landscape: one painted in fear, hunger, death and obscenity.

I wish I could report that "We All Wore Stars: Memories of Anne Frank from her Classmates" by Theo Coster is such an account. Mr. Coster has produced a book based on meetings and interviews with his – and her --- former classmates. This emerged out of his documentary film “The Classmates of Anne Frank” based on the same project.

In fact, the title of this book is misleading. The memories of Anne Frank are present but spare, and the book deals more with Mr. Coster’s interviews focusing on experiences in Holland during the War, and his own story of surviving the war in the care of a Christian family. That the Anne Frank name is prominent in the title is testament more to her continuing marketability, and one wonders whether the appearance of exploitation crossed Mr. Coster’s mind.

Perhaps Miss Frank would have no objection. But precocious and talented writer that she was, she could not have forgiven the rest. It is hard to conceive that an account of Jews surviving Nazi occupation amid the murders of their fellows could be sterile. But that is what Mr. Coster has accomplished. The emotional tone throughout is shockingly cheerful and chatty; it is as if the team survived a particularly bad game, and then went out for dinner.

It is not clear whether the author is able to appreciate the full brunt of his subject, but is not writer enough to articulate it. Or whether – could it be due to wartime trauma? – his limited emotional insight does not allow him to address this difficult topic. One wished throughout that Anne Frank were only here to leap to the author’s aid. ( )

As the title suggests, Anne Frank's classmates detail stories of how they remember her from when they attended school or grew up together. This work is more than just fond memories of Anne. Each classmate details their own situations and they reflect on their own lives before, during, and after the war. These stories mesmerized me more than their memories of Anne. This short novel is great for those studying Anne Frank or those who love to read about the history of WWII. ( )

An excellent book for those familiar with WWIi history, and an especially good companion book to Anne Frank's book. I don't think this would stand alone if the reader was not familiar with Frank's book and legacy, but since Frank's book is one of the most widely read books in the world, finding someone unfamiliar with it would be unlikely.

We All Wore Stars is an intimate book chronicling the history of several of Anne's classmates. It's fascinating (and so so sad) to hear what they all went through during the war years. What trauma they faced, and how when the war was over many of them were left to face the trauma alone.

If you're interested in this time period, and how war affects children, you'll really enjoy this book. ( )

What is left to say about Anne Frank that the lively, spirited and ultimately doomed teenager who died in a Nazi concentration camp?

Plenty, as Theo Coster proves in this thin but charming book. Anne's friends, now more than 80 years old, recall her as flirty, fun, interested in movies, boys and parties. In other words a typical teenaged girl. But Anne's friends recall her gift with words too, and feel as many who've read her diary do-- that the world lost a unique literary voice when the Holocaust claimed her.

Even more poignant are the recollections of Coster and his friends of classmates who disappeared one by one; some to unknown fates but many to death at the hands of an evil regime.

Some of Anne's classmates say that they never had a normal adolescence-- not just because of the war but because they never had a chance to "rebel,'' as they were in hiding.

All children play pretend but for this generation of Jewish children in Holland, "we were performing in a kind of play, only it was for real and for our lives,'' Coster writes. ( )