The Holocaust was one of the most tragic events in world history. It began in 1933 when Hitler was the leader of Germany and ended in 1945. During the Holocaust, the Nazis, a group of people who advocated anti-semintism, killed around six million Jewish people and destroyed the lives of people in Germany. In January 1939, nine year old, Liesel Meminger and her six year old brother, Werner were traveling with their mother to Munich where they would soon be given over to the Hubermanns’, their foster parents, but unfortunately, her younger brother did not make it and she went alone. As she went and lived with the Hubermanns’ on Himmel Street, her life would drastically change forever. In my piece of drawing, I showed the four points that I thought were the most important: the power of words, creating friendships, keeping secrets, and appreciating.
The power of words was what I thought was the most important part of the story. When Liesel first lived with her foster parents, she did not know how to read and when she got to go to school she was put into a younger grade level where she felt like a giant. During the night, she would have her daily nightmares about her brother’s death on the train and Hans Hubermann would come in and calm her down by reading and teaching her how to read. Each day, she would become better and better at reading. But, most importantly, words and books saved Liesel Meminger’s life. Liesel was in her basement reading a book when bombs were dropped that destroyed her home and killed the people she loved, Hans, Rosa, and Rudy.
The friendships Liesel created extremely changed her life especially, her friendships with Hans, Max, and Rudy. Liesel’s relationship was Hans was very important because he comforted her when she had her nightmares during her sleep and he was the one who taught her how to read. Liesel’s relationship with Max was also very important because they shared common things like their nightmares and their love for words. Liesel was uneasy of meeting Max at first then they began to share stories about their nightmares and created an unbreakable friendship. They gave each other gifts, like when Max was sick, Liesel layed out gifts so when he wakes up he will see them and Max gives Liesel a book that he made called, The Standover Man and The Word Shaker. Later on, when the Jews are marching through Mulching again, she sees Max and walks with him, not caring what the consequences would be, then a soldier sees them and whips them, but she still tries to go after Max but Rudy stops her. Rudy was one of the first friendships she created, they always spent a lot of time together. Rudy was in love with Liesel and always demanded for a kiss but she would deny it, but later on Rudy and Liesel’s feelings for each other were mutual. Once, Rudy jumped into a freezing cold river to save The Whistler for Liesel.
Keeping secrets was very important to Liesel’s family. The Hubermanns’ were housing a Jew, Max Vandenburg. Hans’s life was saved by Max’s father, Erik Vandenburg but Erik was killed. Hans felt like he owed something to the Vandenburgs’ so he took in Max. Liesel would have to keep this secret because if anyone found out, Max would be severely punished and so would Liesel and the rest of her family. Max eventually left because he thought he was causing too much trouble in their household.
Many of the characters in The Book Thief began to learn how to appreciate more especially when they met Max. Max had to live in the basement and was not able to see what was going outside of him. When Liesel made a snowman in the basement he valued it so much because he missed being outside. Another way the characters began to appreciate more was by leaving a trail of bread for the Jews that were marching in town.
In my personal opinion, I enjoyed The Book Thief very much. I love reading the pages and feeling the suspense of what was going to happen next. I also loved that it taught important topics life the power of words, the meaning of friendship, keeping promises and secrets, and learning to be grateful and appreciative.