The Book Thief

During August, a Hitler Youth carnival is being held, and Rudy is ambitious to win four gold medals in the 100, 200, 500, and 1500-meter races, just like his idol, Jesse Owens. His old nemesis, Deutscher, is disgruntled after Rudy wins three events. The boy is disqualified in the fourth because he makes a false start before the gun goes off. He later confides to Liesel that he did this on purpose. She speculates about his reasoning: “Perhaps three medals had shown what he’d wanted to show, or he was afraid to lose that final race. In the end, the only explanation she allowed herself to hear was an inner teenage voice” (116).

Liesel takes the opportunity to steal another book from Mayor Hermann’s library. This one is A Song in the Dark. A week later, she finds another book propped against the inside of an open library window, begging her to take it. She considers her trilogy of summer happiness complete when this happens.

The new book is called The Complete Duden Dictionary and Thesaurus. After Liesel steals the book, she discovers a letter from Frau Hermann inside. The woman says she realizes that Liesel has been taking books and invites the girl to use the front door and visit the library as she used to do. Liesel tries to work up the courage to knock on the door but then backs away. She sees Frau Hermann wave at her from the window, and she waves back.

Hans buys a second-hand radio so that the family will be alerted in the event of an air raid. They are all caught unawares when the sirens go off for the first time. The entire neighborhood crowds into the Fiedler basement several doors away, but Max stays behind for fear of discovery. After everyone waits tensely for the bombs, the air raid proves to be a false alarm, and the community goes home, relieved.

Death offers a commentary: “Did they deserve any better, these people? How many had actively persecuted others, high on the scent of Hitler’s gaze, repeating his sentences, his paragraphs, his opus?” (120). 

On September 19, another air raid is announced, and this one is real. Everyone goes to the shelter and seems even jumpier than the first time. Liesel has brought The Whistler with her and begins to read aloud. The story has a calming effect on her listeners. When the air raid is over, they all want to hear the end of the chapter and thank Liesel for reading it.

The next day, a neighbor comes to the Hubermann house. This is Rosa’s nemesis, Frau Holtzapfel. The two women have been feuding for years. The neighbor promises to stop spitting on the Hubermann’s door and offers to give them her ration of coffee if Liesel will come to her house and read the rest of The Whistler over a series of days. She has become intrigued by the story and wants to know how it ends. The deal is struck, and Liesel is sent off to read.

A concentration camp convoy in the vicinity of Himmel Street is on its way to Dachau. The guards decide to give the Jews some fresh air by making them walk the rest of the way to the camp. Everyone comes out to see the Jews being paraded past their homes. Liesel and her father are shocked by the wretched condition of the prisoners.

Overcome with pity, Hans offers a crust of bread to one of the Jews. A guard beats the hapless man and Hans. Afterward, he realizes his mistake; now that Hans has been singled out as a Jew lover, the Nazis might search the Hubermann house and find Max.

At 11 pm that night, Max quits the Hubermann home. He announces to Liesel that he’s left her a present which she won’t receive until she’s ready. Hans arranges to meet Max four days later, farther down the Amper River. When he arrives at the rendezvous, all he finds is a note saying, “You’ve done enough.”

Hans waits tensely for days, expecting the Gestapo to come for him at any time: “‘I am stupid,’ Hans Hubermann told his foster daughter. ‘And kind. Which makes the biggest idiot in the world. The thing is, I want them to come for me. Anything’s better than this waiting’” (129). When Hans sees two men in dark coats walking down the street the next day, he assumes they’ve come for him. Instead, they’ve come in search of Rudy.