Counting Lost Stars by author Kim van Alkemade is a cautionary tale about the limits of technology research. The story begins in New York, 1960, where Barnard College senior, Rita Klein, “got into trouble”. Her parents ask Rita to do, “a mitzvah,” surrender her baby for adoption. Rita aches to reverse the forced decision. Serendipitously Rita’s job at IBM computers connects her to Jacob Nassy, a tour guide at the Empire state building, where they both work. A survivor of Auschwitz, Jacob longs to reunite with his mother who may have survived Bergen- Belsen. Rita identifies with Jacob’s loss, confident her computer skills will locate her.
Author Alkemade turns back the clock to Holland 1941, under Nazi occupation. Cornelia Vogel, works as a punch- card operator tabulating and encoding information on the Hollerith machine, a precursor to the IBM. Cornelia’s father creates an ingenious method to organize the census for the Dutch population using the Hollerith system. Romantic, Cornelia imagines the perforations on the punch- cards are “like tiny stars sparkling with intelligence.” When Cornelia innocently asks her father why some ID codes relate specifically to Jewish names he angrily counters, he’s not in charge of “government policy,” rather a provider of a “miraculously efficient service.”
Upstairs from the Vogel’s are the Bloms. Leah and her parents, Professor and wife Lillian. Though they live in close proximity, “a certain level of aloofness” exists between the gentile and Jewish families. However, Cornelia and Leah become fast friends when Cornelia requests Leah’s assistance to translate a manual from English to Dutch for the more advanced “alphabetizing Hollerith” machines. The two women form a close working bond. Expectedly, their relationship develops into love. As an act of defiance to her father’s obvious Nazi collaboration and an affirmation of her love for Leah, Cornelia surreptitiously creates a fake ID card to facilitate Leah’s escape from the Netherlands. However, through a careless error in her judgment, ironically, it’s Cornelia whose life hangs in the balance when she is mistakenly identified as a Jew and imprisoned.
Alternating between two time- lines, Alkemade seamlessly picks up Rita’s and Jacob’s post war 1960 narrative. Rita’s computer research skills gain her access to the files at Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp purported to be Jacob Nassy’s mother’s last known destination. As she examines the old punch cards efficiently employed by the Nazi perpetrators, these have now become mere bits of perforated paper, useless--- in Rita’s search for Jacob’s mother---unless she can finds a way to decode them.
An ambitious plot saturated with many technical details, Alkemade balances the meandering saga with compelling insights into the psychology of loss and four individuals stuck in the crosshairs of technology. Counting Lost Stars is nevertheless, a fascinating read for devotees of historical fiction and computer nerds of any age.