The Fiftysix Star Flag

I was perusing the children’s section at a local library recently. I came across a book that told a story about the liberation of a concentration camp at the end of World War II in Germany. Curious how the book was written so that children could understand, without being too graphic, I pulled the book (40 pages) from the shelf and read it.
It tells the story of the liberation of Mauthausen Concentration camp by a platoon of Americans led by Staff Sgt. Albert Kosiek. The book didn’t hide any of the atrocious and heinous acts of the Germans, but tells about them in such a way that children can at the same time understand, yet not come away from reading the book with fright or terror. The book does a great job of reminding even the children of today of such things so that we as a society may never forget—and never allow or condone such to happen again.
I checked other records for accuracy of the account in the children’s book when I came home that evening. The book, although simply written, was accurate in its account. One of the book summaries I found says this about the flag you see pictured here. “On May 6, 1945 when the 11th Armored Division of the U.S. Army marched into the Mauthausen Concentration camp, they were presented with an extraordinary gift. Despite their desperate and starving conditions, a group of prisoners had surreptitiously sewed scraps of sheets and jackets together to make a U.S. flag. Even though the inmates had added an extra row of stars (they weren’t sure how many stars the flag had…they put 56 on the flag), Colonel Richard Seibel had the flag flown over the camp as a tribute to the humanity, perseverance, and spirit of the survivors of Mauthausen.”
The name of the book is The Flag With Fiftysix Stars; A Gift From the Survivors of Mauthausen. There are a hundred lessons for humanity in this account of the liberation of Mauthausen, and there are thousands more lessons for the human race in the history of World War II. I’m not Jewish. You probably aren’t either. Nevertheless, we must never, ever forget. And we must continue to pass down the history…all of it both good and bad…untainted by political correctness, bigotry, ignorance, or narrow-mindedness.