The Book Thief Summary

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Liesel Meminger is a nine year old girl that was living in Germany in 1939. Her mother was taken away from Liesel and her brother. When Liesel and her brother where going to go see their mother Liesel brother died. She found a book called “The Grave Diggers Handbook”. Liesel was taken to a foster home. She gets along with her foster parents. The foster parent’s names are Hans and Rosa Hubermann. The foster parents of Liesel show her how to read and write. Liesel best friend name is Rudy Steiner they have many memories together. They both are thieves, Rudy and Liesel. Rudy has a big crush on Liesel. Max Vandenburg is a Jew being hidden in the basement of Liesel basement. Liesel and Rudy stole books from

The Book Thief, written by an Australian author, Markus Zusak, is a devastatingly powerful historical-fiction novel that bears several re-readings. Being one of the greatest, most divinely-written epilogues in my school library, The Book Thief, is a soul-shattering, thought-provoking story that undoubtedly can be recommended to the young and old alike. This poignant, prolonged, but achingly sad book, is the pinnacle of contemporary historical-fiction, poised to become a classic. Phenomenally breathtaking, and inspiring, bringing nothing but anticipatory dread, this lyrical, surreal book, though depressingly morbid at times, was my “gateway” to historical-fiction. The tribulations and trials provided in the novel, had inevitable passion, perspective

“After the War”, a book written by Carol Matas, is a captivating story about a group of Jewish people who illegally immigrate to Palestine. Throughout this story, we learn about the many struggles that the Jewish people had after WW2 ended. They had to find many ways to fight for their right to live. Some of these survival techniques include lying, stealing, and hiding.

Hitler and the Holocaust is a very informational novel written by Robert S. Wistrich that not only explains this horrible time in history, but also gives us a look into the mind of Hitler and Nazi ideology. This book is not just centered on Hitler and Germany as it my sound, antisemitism spread like a plague all across Europe even before the Holocaust took place. In this work, Wistrich is not making an argument, but is trying to find an explanation on why so many inhumane actions were allowed.

“The War Against The Jews” by Lucy Dawidowicz explores a very dark time in history and interprets it from her view. Through the use of other novels, she concurs and agrees to form her opinion. This essay will explore who Dawidowicz is, why she wrote the book, what the book is about, what other authors have explored with the same topic, and how I feel about the topic she wrote about. All in all, much research will be presented throughout the essay. In the end you will see how strongly I feel about the topic I chose. I believe that although Hitler terrorized the Jews, they continued to be stronger than ever, and tried to keep up their society.

In the novel Annexed, Sharon Dogar taps into what psychological and emotional ramifications the anti-semitism and oppression of the Nazis against the Jewish race could have been like from the perspective of a a Jewish teen living in Amsterdam, Holland during the early-mid 1940’s.

The Book Thief is about a young German girl named Liesel Meminger as she goes through life while living in Germany in 1939. Liesel and her foster parents live a normal life on 33 Himmel Street. There is only one difference between their family and the others, they are hiding Max Vandenburg (a Jewish man) in their basement during the time of the Holocaust. This story, narrated by Death follows the life of Liesel from her first step into 33 Himmel Street, until the day she died in Sydney, Australia.

Liesel most definitely could have trusted Rudy with the secret of having Max hidden in her basement. Rudy was clearly Liesel’s best friend and partner in crime when Liesel was doing her acts of thievery stealing the books from the mayor’s wife bookself. The devotion to Liesel Rudy also had was strong and I believe Liesel could have trusted Rudy.

The Holocaust lasted from 1933-1945, when the Nazi army used the Jewish people as a scapegoat and persuaded parts of Europe that they were responsible for all the issues being faced at that time. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, and other groups of people, were thrown into forced labor camps called concentration camps. The majority of those who were in the camps did not live to see liberation. The stories of the survivors are indispensable resources to completely understand the heinous events during the Holocaust. The overall feeling of emptiness is extremely evident in the book Night.

This book shows that the Germans and Hitler had something wrong with the Jews, and it shows that people should not get mistreated just because they are different than them. The physiological need of the people in the camp are trying to stay alive, and trying to defend for themselves,and trying to find food and water, They also dehumanize them by putting numbers on their wrist, and making them work in the cold weather that makes them feel dehumanized.

(Meltzer 16) “ Our plans were tipped off prematurely, so that a lot of Jews slipped through our hands. They are now wandering about Berlin without homes, are not registered with police and are naturally quite a public danger,” wrote Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda and political boss in Berlin. The darkness the Nazi’s surrounded the Jewish community would soon be broken by many people who would lead them to the light. The book RESCUE by Milton Meltzer is a nonfiction novel that talks about people who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazi’s, also the book starts out with the background of WWII and talks about the inhumanity the Jews suffered through.

The story opens with death being the narrator, who claims that he likes a brown sky and that he has seen a girl three times-at the death of her brother,a crashed plane, and a destroyed town from a bomb attack. The girl was Liesel Memminger, a nine year old German girl who is traveling with her mother and brother to her new home-a foster home. Her brother, Werner unfortunately didn’t make it on the way, so they had him buried, and that was when Liesel stole her first book. Upon arriving to Himmel Street in Molching, she is greeted by Hans and Rosa Hubermann, but mostly Hans. Hans and Liesel soon grew fond of each other, and as for Rosa, it is the complete opposite.

4:3:2 THE BOY At the beginning of the novel the father leads the story, later half of the story taken by the young boy, who is also unnamed throughout the novel. He is a “normal” character lives in the future world. So, he does not know the reality and the values of human beings. He does not even know to differentiate the good guys and the bad guys.

There were a tremendous amount of inspiring changes made to prevent the Holocaust of ever happening again. Reading the stories of survivors was astonishing and shocking to believe that one person could cause such inhumane destruction. I have been taught the events and cruelties of the Holocaust. I have read and learned many things about it. But, every time I research deeper into it, I learn something new every time. This novel was aspiring, moving and sorrowful. It captured details of the Holocaust that I never knew about. Trying to imagine being in their shoes is incomprehensible to the mind. I did not have any complications on accompanying research for this paper and I enjoyed gaining more knowledge of this distraught event in

People risked their lives to prevent the Jews from being captured and put into concentration camps. Some may say, however, that the real savior of the Jews were the resisters who fought back the Nazis in ghettos and partisans. Unfortunately, the Nazis intimidated the Jews by killing off ten other family members or burning down the ghettos for every Jewish person who revolted. It was better to use other methods of resisting than to risk the lives of other