Number the Stars Characters: Full List & Analysis

Who drives the story

Main characters

Annemarie Johansen

A ten-year-old Copenhagen girl who learns that not knowing everything can be a kind of protection — until the night she must run through dark woods alone. She grows into the courier who delivers the packet that helps save the refugees.

Appears in:: Part 1: Running Home Past Soldiers; Part 2: The House by the Sea; Part 3: The Casket and the Run; Part 4: All This Long Time
Themes:: Courage you don't feel; Friendship across difference; What children can bear to know; Loss as the price of rescue

Ellen Rosen

Annemarie's best friend, a Jewish girl whose dark hair nearly gives her away when she poses as the dead Lise. Her parents hide, she hides with the Johansens, and she escapes to Sweden — leaving her necklace behind.

Appears in:: Part 1: Running Home Past Soldiers; Part 2: The House by the Sea; Part 3: The Casket and the Run; Part 4: All This Long Time
Themes:: Friendship across difference; Loss as the price of rescue

Kirsti Johansen

Annemarie's five-year-old sister, whose chatter about fish-skin shoes distracts soldiers on a train.

Appears in:: Part 1: Running Home Past Soldiers; Part 2: The House by the Sea
Themes:: Ordinary neighbors as heroes

Peter Neilsen

Lise's fiancé, secretly a member of the Danish Resistance, who brings news of the arrests and helps the Rosens escape. He is captured and executed by the Nazis, buried in an unmarked grave.

Appears in:: Part 1: Running Home Past Soldiers; Part 4: All This Long Time
Themes:: Loss as the price of rescue

Mrs. Johansen

Annemarie's mother, who lies to a soldier's face about typhus and leads the first group of refugees toward the harbor. She breaks her ankle and still gets her daughter moving.

Appears in:: Part 2: The House by the Sea; Part 3: The Casket and the Run
Themes:: What children can bear to know; Loss as the price of rescue

Uncle Henrik

A fisherman in Gilleleje whose boat carries Jews to Sweden. He teaches Annemarie that bravery is easier when you don't know everything.

Appears in:: Part 2: The House by the Sea; Part 3: The Casket and the Run; Part 4: All This Long Time
Themes:: Courage you don't feel; What children can bear to know

Lise Johansen

Annemarie's dead older sister, whose name and face shelter Ellen. She died working with the Resistance, run down by a truck with Peter beside her.

Appears in:: Part 1: Running Home Past Soldiers; Part 4: All This Long Time
Themes:: Loss as the price of rescue

How they are connected

Key relationships

Ellen Rosen Annemarie Johansen
Annemarie's best friend, a Jewish girl whose dark hair nearly gives her away when she poses as the dead Lise.
Ellen Rosen Lise Johansen
Annemarie's best friend, a Jewish girl whose dark hair nearly gives her away when she poses as the dead Lise.
Kirsti Johansen Annemarie Johansen
Annemarie's five-year-old sister, whose chatter about fish-skin shoes distracts soldiers on a train.
Peter Neilsen Lise Johansen
Lise's fiancé, secretly a member of the Danish Resistance, who brings news of the arrests and helps the Rosens escape.
Mrs. Johansen Annemarie Johansen
Annemarie's mother, who lies to a soldier's face about typhus and leads the first group of refugees toward the harbor.
Uncle Henrik Annemarie Johansen
He teaches Annemarie that bravery is easier when you don't know everything.
Lise Johansen Annemarie Johansen
Annemarie's dead older sister, whose name and face shelter Ellen.

Go deeper

Number the Stars themes & symbols

Courage you don't feel · Ordinary neighbors as heroes · Friendship across difference · What children can bear to know

Themes explained

Read the full Number the Stars summary

The full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.

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