Prejudice

Throughout The Forest of Vanishing Stars, prejudice based on ethnicity and race is a significant factor. The Germans have a generalized hatred toward Jewish people during the novel's World War II setting. The hatred prompts the genocide of countless Jews. In return, the violence toward Jewish people has birthed hatred toward the Germans, feelings that were previously nonexistent.

The novel takes place during the invasion of Poland by German soldiers. A woman named Jerusza kidnaps a toddler from her German parents' home in Berlin, Germany. Jerusza is acting on divine instruction to keep the little girl safe. Jerusza names the little girl Yona and spends the next 20 years teaching her to survive in the forest with limited interaction with other humans.

Jerusza believes she is saving Yona from being raised by the evil German parents. Eventually, Yona learns that her mother was a Jewish woman who...