The Holocaust

 Hitler’s “final solution”

 World War II genocide of the European Jews
 Since 1945, the word has taken on a new and
horrible meaning: the ideological and
systematic state-sponsored prosecution and
mass murder of millions of European Jews (as
well as millions of others, including Gypsies,
the intellectually disabled, dissidents and
homosexuals) by the German Nazi regime
between 1933 and 1945.
ADOLF HITLER
 Führer = (German: “The Supreme Leader”)
 born April 20, 1889, Braunau am Inn, Austria
 died April 30, 1945, Berlin, Germany)
 leader of the Nazi Party
ADOLF HITLER
BELIEFS
 Antisemitism

- The belief or behavior hostile toward Jews just

because they are Jewish.
 Anti-communism
 Anti-parliamentarianism
 Superiority of an "Aryan race"

- Hitler believed the German race to be

the superior race, and called the German race
‘Aryan’
ADOLF HITLER
Beliefs
 An extreme form of German nationalism
-His expansionist policies sought
‘Lebensraum‘ for the German people. Hitler
wanted to create a generation of young
Aryans who were physically fit and
totally obedient through programs such
as Hitler Youth.

Lebensraum
Nazi Party
 National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP)
 nationalist, racist and antisemitic views.
 considered Jews to be an inferior race of people, who set out to weaken
other races and take over the world. Hitler believed that Jews were
particularly destructive to the German ‘Aryan’ race and did not have
any place in Nazi Germany.
 wanted to rid Germany of the disabled, homosexuals, Roma and Sinti,
and other minorities that did not fit in to his idea of an Aryan race. The
Nazis labelled these groups ‘a-social’.
WORLD WAR II
 The instability created in Europe by the First
World War (1914-18) set the stage for another
international conflict–World War II–which
broke out two decades later and would prove
even more devastating. Rising to power in an
economically and politically unstable
Germany, Adolf Hitler and his National
Socialist (Nazi Party) rearmed the nation and
signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to
further his ambitions of world domination.
Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939
drove Great Britain and France to declare war
on Germany, and World War II had begun
AUTHOR
: Markus
Zusak
Background of the Author
 Markus Zusak was born in 1975 in Sydney, Australia, the youngest of four
children of immigrant German and Austrian parents.
 Published his first novel named The Underdog in the year 1999.
 The Book Thief was published in 2006 and was met with a more critical and
popular success.
 Zusak received many awards for The Book Thief, including the Michael L.
Printz Honor and the Kathleen Mitchell Award (Australia). It was named
a Best Book by the School Library Journal and the Young Adult Library
Services Association, and was the Editors’ Choice in the Kirkus Review
and Booklist. Zusak lives in Sydney, Australia and continues to write fiction.
What’s your
perception about
DEATH?
The Book Thief
(Part One)
PROLOGUE
SUMMARY
 Death introduces itself as the book's narrator and
describes its work: after one dies, Death carries one's
soul off from one's corporeal body.
 Death explains that it deliberately tries to notice
colors -- as opposed to bodies and people -- in its
line of work as a way of distracting itself from the
survivors, whom Death considers to be more tragic
than the actual dead.
 Death will convey the dramatic events of the story
of Liesel Meminger, the book thief
PROLOGUE
SUMMARY
 BESIDE THE RAILWAY LINE [Described in Part 1]
The first time it saw her was on a train where he had
come to collect the soul of a small boy. There were two guards,
one mother and daughter, and one corpse on the ground by a
stopped train.
 THE ECLIPSE [Part 9]
The next time Death saw the book thief was years later,
when a pilot had crashed his plane. A plane has crashed, and
a boy with a toolbox -- later revealed to be Rudy Steiner -- arrives
first at the scene.
 THE FLAG [Part 10]
The third time he saw the book thief, a German town
had been bombed. The book thief was sitting on a pile of rubble,
holding a book.
 PROLOGUE SUMMARY
 Death explains that three colors -- red,
white, black -- most resonate with its
memories of Liesel, and draws them on the
page as a dash of red, a circle of white, and a
swastika for black. These are the colors and
symbols of the Nazi flag; the implication is
that Nazism is responsible for the deaths in
these three episodes.
 Death alludes to the ruling Nazi Party's
attempt to create an Aryan race of
superior Germans with blond hair and
blue eyes.
PROLOGUE
SUMMARY
 Death
implies that death exists as a result of
humanity's actions
 Death is kept busy by men who kill other
men.
 The capacity of men to do evil, along with
the capacity of men to do good, is a central
theme of The Book Thief, and Death is both
fascinated and conflicted by these extremes.
Hitler and Stalin represent one extreme.
PART I SUMMARY
 The novel begins in January 1939. Liesel Meminger is 9 years old.
 ARRIVAL ON HIMMEL STREET
Liesel Meminger and her six-year-old brother, Werner, are traveling with
their mother by train to Munich, where Liesel and her brother are to be given
over to foster parents, Rosa and Hans Hubberman. Half asleep, Liesel dreams of
Adolf Hitler speaking at a rally where Hitler smiles at Liesel, and Liesel, who is
illiterate, greets him in broken German. As Liesel’s mother sleeps, Liesel sees
Werner die, and Death takes Werner’s spirit but remains to watch what
happens next.
Two days later, Liesel's brother is buried by two gravediggers.
Traumatized, Liesel digs at her brother's grave but is carried away by her mother.
Before leaving on another train, Liesel steals a black book from the cemetery
ground: The Grave Digger's Handbook.
PART I SUMMARY
 GROWING UP A SAUMENSCH
Death remarks that Liesel will steal several books with a hidden Jew.
Liesel is very malnourished upon arrival. Her father was a Communist, but
she does not yet know what this means. Liesel feels abandoned by her mother but
dimly understands that she is being "saved" from poverty and persecution. Rosa
constantly shouts at Liesel, calling her a saumensch ("pig girl") when she refuses to
have a bath. Hans, described as a house painter and accordion player, acts more
kindly, teaching Liesel to roll a cigarette. Liesel begins to call her foster parents
"Mama" and "Papa."
PART I SUMMARY
 THE WOMAN WITH THE IRON FIST
For the first few months, Liesel would have a nightmare about her brother every
night and wet the bed. Hans would come in and sit with her. Secretly Liesel keeps The Grave
Digger's Handbook under her bed; despite not being able to read even the title, Liesel is
reminded by it of the last time she saw her brother and mother.
A few regular activities are introduced. Liesel begins school but is forced into a
much younger class of students just learning the alphabet. In February, Liesel turns ten and
is enrolled into the Hitler Youth. Hans goes to a bar some evenings to play the accordion for
money. Rosa, who does laundry for wealthier neighbors, takes Liesel on deliveries and
privately berates her customers. Rosa forces Liesel to deliver a bag to the mayor's house,
where the mayor's wife silently takes it. Frau Holtzapfel, a neighbor feuding Rosa, spits on
the Hubermann's door every night, and Liesel is made to clean it.
PART I SUMMARY
 THE KISS (A Childhood Decision Maker)
Some of the neighbors in Himmel include Rudy Steiner, one of six who lives next door
to the Hubermanns; Frau Diller, a staunch Aryan cornershop owner; Tommy Muller, a twitchy kid
suffering from ear infections; and Pfiffikus, a vulgar man. The neighborhood kids play soccer
with garbage cans for goals, and Liesel is made to be goalie (replacing Tommy).
Rudy is made to walk Liesel to school, and he takes a liking to her. He explains that Frau
Diller is so committed to the Nazi Party that she refuses service to anyone who does not say "heil
Hitler" upon entering her shop. At school, Rudy constantly seeks Liesel out despite others'
comments on her supposed stupidity; Rudy is implied to be in love with Liesel. The two race the
hundred meters and Rudy bets a kiss on it; they both slip before the finish, but Rudy says that one
day Liesel will "be dying to kiss" him.
PART I SUMMARY
 THE JESSE OWENS INCIDENT
A flashback to 1936, when Jesse Owens, the black American runner, wins
four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, embarrassing Hitler and the racist Nazis.
Rudy, obsessed with the achievement, paints himself black with charcoal and runs the
100 meter relay at an empty track, imagining himself to be Owens. Rudy's father,
Alex Steiner, drags his son home and lectures him not to pretend to be black or
Jewish because of the Nazis' racial policies. It is noted that Alex is a member of the
Nazi Party but not a racist, and that he will do anything to support his family, even if
that means being in the party.
PART I SUMMARY
 THE OTHER SIDE OF SANDPAPER
In May, brown-shirted Nazis march through town, and Hans is
revealed to not be a supporter of Hitler. After one of Liesel's nightmares, Hans
finds her book and agrees to read it to her. Hans, a poor reader himself, is
puzzled by the book about grave-digging, but begins reading to the young girl
anyway. Hans finds that Liesel cannot read any words herself, so he begins
teaching her the alphabet using sandpaper and a painter's pencil.
PART I SUMMARY
 THE SMELL OF FRIENDSHIP
Hans continues reading to and teaching Liesel every night after her
continued nightmares. Hans even accompanies Liesel when Rosa makes
her do laundry deliveries. Hans and Liesel begin working in the basement,
where they begin using paint on the cement wall for their lessons.
PART I SUMMARY
 THE HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE SCHOOL-YARD
In September, Germany invades Poland, starting World War II. Rationing begins as
England and France join the fight against Germany. Liesel is moved up to the same class as Rudy
and Tommy, the proper level for her age. All the students but Liesel are made to perform readings;
Rudy interjects at the end that Liesel hadn't gone. The teacher, Sister Maria, refuses, but Liesel
insists. Liesel cannot read her piece, so she instead begins to recite a chapter from The Grave
Digger's Handbook, which she memorized from Hans' readings. Sister Maria takes Liesel into the
corridor and gives her a watschen (beating) as the class laughs.
Later, Liesel is taunted by her classmate Ludwig. Rudy urges her to ignore Ludwig, but
she instead savagely beats him. Still enraged, she also punches Tommy a few times and announces
to the stunned crowd of students, "I'm not stupid." Back in class, Sister Maria punishes Liesel with
a severe watschen. On the way home from school, Liesel thinks about her brother's death and the
humiliating day, and Rudy comforts her.
Characters

Death - The narrator of the story. Death is initially sardonic, with a darkly wry sense of humor,
but as the novel progresses and World War II accelerates, Death expresses weariness and remorse
about having to collect so many souls.

Liesel Meminger - The protagonist of the story. Liesel changes from an angry, distrusting
character to one who deeply loves her family and friends. By the end of the book, she has a strong
personal moral code and is not afraid to endanger herself to enforce it.

Hans Hubermann - Liesel’s stepfather. Hans is patient and gentle with Liesel and is the first adult
able to win her trust. He is constantly motivated to help others, and his strong sense of right and
wrong causes him to act against his own best interests.

Rosa Hubermann - Liesel’s stepmother. Unlike her husband, Rosa first comes across as cold and
impatient. The story reveals through her treatment of Liesel and willingness to take in Max,
however, that beneath her tough exterior she is in fact kind and caring.
Characters

Rudy Steiner - Liesel’s best friend. With his blond hair, blue eyes, and athletic and
intellectual talents, Rudy is the physical embodiment of the perfect Aryan specimen, but he
has surprising sensitivity and compassion. He is in love with Liesel and is always there for
her.
Alex Steiner - Rudy’s father. Alex’s inability to sacrifice his son to the Nazi training camp
results in his being drafted into the army. At the end of the book, he is filled remorse for
having survived the war while his family died.

Frau Diller - Owner of the candy store. One of the most patriotic figures in the book, she is
a rule-follower and a mean, ungenerous character. She embodies the Hitler ideal of the
“good” German who blindly follows orders.
Characters

Adolf Hitler - The Führer (leader) of Nazi Germany and antagonist of the novel. Hitler never
physically appears in the story, but he stands as a symbol for all the evil caused by the Nazis and
the War. Hitler's use of language and propaganda to cause suffering shows an abuse of the power
of words, and his book Mein Kampf plays a major role in the plot.

Ludwig Schmeikl - A boy who mocks Liesel for being illiterate, but then she beats him up. Later
the two of them apologize to each other.

Tommy Müller - A neighbor and classmate of Rudy and Liesel's, he is physically weak, hard of
hearing, and twitchy, and his weakness incurs the wrath of Liesel and later Franz Deutscher.
ELEMENTS
SETTING –
Nazi Germany and the Second World War
Munich
Dachau Concentration Camp

TONE –
Intense and serious

MOOD –
a somber time, and fear is in the air in Nazi Germany.
ELEMENTS
THEME
 BOOKS AND WRITING – several characters’ lives are changed or affected by
reading books or writing.

For example:
Liesel escapes death in the bombing of Himmel Street because she is writing her life
story.
Max’s friendship with Liesel blossoms when he writes her a book on the pages of
“Mein Kampf.” Writing also builds some of the relationships in the story.

 ISSUE DURING ITS TIME: The Power of Words

ELEMENTS
THEME
 DARKNESS– Symbolizing ignorance and despair
For example:
Because of Max’s profession, he creates darkness when he paints over peoples’
blinds for black outs, so in this sense the motif of darkness symbolizes safety, as
well.
Liesel and the other characters must constantly fight the darkness if they want to
see the words they read and write.
ELEMENTS
THEME
 Stealing– The act of stealing appears repeatedly in the novel.
Stealing is a way of taking back some control over a world that is
largely beyond their control.
For example:
Liesel and Rudy join a band of boys who frequently take apples and vegetables
from a nearby orchard.
Liesel earns the nickname of the “book thief.”
ELEMENTS
SYMBOLS
 BREAD - Giving bread is an act of selflessness in the novel, and it represents
the kindness that people are capable of.

For example:
When Max is hiding in the storeroom, his friend brings him bread to help him
keep alive. The fact that it’s a challenge for them to do so, because as we know
if they were caught it would mean severe punishment and likely death, indicates
that giving Max the bread puts his needs above their own.
ELEMENTS

SYMBOLS
 HAN’S ACCORDION - Hans’s accordion represents his debt to Erik
Vandenburg, the friend who saved his life, and the responsibility he feels to
live because Erik didn’t.
For example:
Hans inherited the accordion after Erik died in the battle that Erik got him out of,
and he learned to play it as a way of honoring Erik’s memory.
ELEMENTS
SYMBOLS
 BOOKS- represent learning and power

Liesel’s development from a powerless girl to a more mature, empowered

young woman is symbolized by her relationship to books.
For example:
Liesel begins to learn how to read and write, and thus begins to gain power
over books, her character also develops. She starts to mature emotionally and
to be kinder and more understanding of those around her.
FIGURES OF SPEECH
“ It’s the story of one of those perpetual survivors- an expert at being left behind ” (pg. 8)
- Foreshadowing

“ The globe was dressed in snow. Like it had pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater “ (pg.9)
- Personification

“ His eyes were cold and brown - like coffee stains ” (pg.11)
- Simile

“A suddenness found its way onto his lips then, which were a corroded brown color and peeling, like old
paint ” (pg. 16)
- Simile

“ The boy’s spirit was soft and cold like an ice cream. He started melting in my arms ” (pg.17)
- Simile
FIGURES OF SPEECH
“ Her heart at that point was slippery and hot, and loud, so loud so loud.” (pg. 17)
- Metaphor

“ Within seconds, snow was carved into her skin “ (pg. 18)
- Hyperbole

“ This time, the train limped through the snowed in country.” (pg. 18)
- Personification

“ I traveled the globe as always, handling souls to the conveyor belt of eternity ” (pg. 18)
- Metaphor

“ They ignore the reality that a new version of the same old problem will be waiting at the end of the trip—the
relative you cringe to kiss.” (pg 19)
- Metaphor
FIGURES OF SPEECH
“Himmel=heaven (pg.20)
- Irony

“ There is murky snow spread out like carpet “ (pg. 21)

- Simile

“ ..apartment blocks that look nervous. “ (pg 21)

- Personification
FIGURES OF SPEECH
“ Her face, which was like creased-up cardboard ” (pg.21)
- Simile

The book thief had struck for the first time—the beginning of an illustrious career (pg. 22)
- Foreshadowing

But she did love Liesel Meminger. Her way of showing it just happened to be strange. It involved bashing her with
wooden spoons and words at various intervals. (pg.25)
- Irony

"Enormous mileage of sleep" (pg.28)

-Hyperbole

"School, as you would imagine, was a terrific faliure." (pg.28)

-Irony

"Pale enough to disappear altogether." (pg.28)

-Hyperbole
FIGURES OF SPEECH
“The echo of her sweating followed him up the street.” (pg.29)
- Personification

She could argue with the entire world in that kitchen and almost every evening she did. (pg. 29)
- Hyperbole

A woman with startled eyes, hair like fluff. (pg.30)

- Simile

Mama's eyes were like pale blue cutouts, pasted to her face. (pg.31)
-Simile

A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to lasting friendship. (pg.34)
-Sarcasm

The small house compressed behind it shivered with a little more severity than the other buildings on Himmel Street.
(pg.35)
-Personification
FIGURES OF SPEECH
Their uniforms walked upright, and their black boots further polluted the snow. (pg.35)
- Personification

His voice was angular and true. His body was tall and heavy, like oak. His hair was like splinters. (pg. 40)
- Simile

Hands that burned from applause. (pg.42)

- Hyperbole

Alex Steiner, who stood like a human-shaped block of wood (pg.42)

- Simile

The yellow light was alive with dust. (pg.43)

-Personification

In the times ahead, that story would arrive at 33 Himmel Street in the early hours of morning, wearing ruffled shoulders
and a shivering jacket. (pg.48)
-Personification
FIGURES OF SPEECH
Oh, how the clouds stumbled in and assembled stupidly in the sky. (pg.53)
- Personification

She was the book thief without the words. (pg. 54)
- Irony

He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world. (pg.54)
- Hyperbole
IMAGERY

“There might be a discovery; a scream will dribble down the air. The only sound I’ll
hear after that will be my own breathing, and the sound of the smell, of my
footsteps.”
-Auditory

“I like a chocolate-colored sky. Dark, dark chocolate. “

-Visual
IMAGERY

“Yes, it was white. It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it had
pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, footprints were
sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice.”
-Visual

“The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some
places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the
redness.”
-Visual
IMAGERY

“Sometimes I manage to float far above those three moments”

-Organic

“If you can’t imagine it, think clumsy silence. Think bits and pieces of floating
despair. And drowning in a train.”
-Organic
IMAGERY

“It was a goodbye that was wet, with the girl’s head buried into the woolly, worn
shallows of her mother’s coat. There had been some more dragging. “
-Organic

“Upon her arrival, you could still see the bite marks of snow on her hands and the
frosty blood on her fingers.”
-Visual

“The smell of him. It was a mixture of dead cigarettes, decades of paint, and human
skin”
-Olfactory
IMAGERY

“The echo of her swearing followed him up the street. He never looked back, or at least,
not until he was sure his wife was gone.”
-Auditory

“Snow had stopped falling on the filthy street now, and the muddy footprints were
gathered between them. “
-Visual

“Ash stumbled from its edge and lunged and lifted several times until it hit the ground.”
(pg 21)
-Kinesthetic
IMAGERY

“It was a place nobody wanted to stay and look at, but almost everyone did. Shaped
like a long, broken arm, the road contained several houses with lacerated windows
and bruised walls. The Star of David was painted on their doors. Those houses were
almost like lepers. At the very least, they were infected sores on the injured German
terrain.”
-Visual

“She was taken up, put in a chair at the side, and told to keep her mouth shut by the
teacher,
-Kinesthetic
THEMATIC ANALYSIS
 Literacy and Power of Words
While language initially is a struggle for the main character, Liesel, it
becomes one that empowers her and allows her to quietly rebel against
Hitler's regime.
 The Kindness and Cruelty of Humans
The novel shows the varying degrees of people’s kindness and cruelty, from
the slight to the most extreme examples.
 The Responsibility of the Living to the Dead
Because many of the characters in the novel have lost family members,
many wrestle with the survivor’s guilt of continuing to live while their loved
ones do not.
REFERENCES

 Brittanica. (n.d.). World War II. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II
 Gradesaver. (n.d.). The Book Thief Summary and Analysis. Retrieved from
https://www.gradesaver.com/the-book-thief/study-guide/summary-part-one
 History Com. (n.d.). The Holocaust. Retrieved from
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-holocaust
 Sparknotes. (n.d.). The Book Thief. Retrieved from
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-book-thief/section1/page/2/