The Book Thief

By the end of 1939, rationing has begun. Liesel’s reading abilities are slowly improving, and she receives two new books for Christmas. They are titled Faust the Dog and The Lighthouse. When she asks her father how he paid for them, he says he traded a gypsy in the marketplace with some of his precious cigarettes. 

As times become harder in wartime Germany, Rosa loses a few of her laundry customers. She insists that Liesel should perform pickups and deliveries alone because people will feel sorry for the child and not take their business away.

At school, the children are instructed to write a letter to someone. Back at home, Liesel posts a letter to her real mother. Rosa worries about what the Nazis might have done to Frau Meminger as the wife of a communist.

Liesel waits in vain for months for her mother’s reply to her letter. She writes several more and steals some of the laundry money to pay for postage. Because Rosa’s laundry business has dwindled even further, she beats Liesel when she discovers the theft.

On Hitler’s birthday in 1940, the Hubermann children come to visit. Hans Junior is a fervent Nazi, while his sister Trudy is placid and quiet. Hans accuses his father of cowardice for not joining the party and runs away from the house, despite his father’s pleas to return. Later that night, Liesel prepares for a book burning.

The entire town gathers for the book-burning rally. The speaker exhorts everyone to purify their minds and avoid the teachings of Jews and communists. Liesel begins to understand the danger of the latter and that her own family was destroyed because of it.

Liesel waits on the street for her father. When he arrives, she asks him if Hitler took her parents away. When Papa agrees, Liesel declares that she hates Hitler. Papa slaps her and says she must never utter those words in public again.

As Liesel and Hans make their way home, they pass the site of the bonfire, which is still smoldering. Hans stops to talk to an acquaintance. Liesel watches the clean-up crew and notices a few books that haven’t burned at the bottom of the pile. She steals one and hides it under her coat, even though it’s still smoking.

As Liesel and Hans walk back from the remains of the bonfire, Hans notices the smoking book that Liesel is concealing. He’s thunderstruck because it gives him an idea: “The man was seeing something. He was watching it quickly, end to end, like a race, but it was too high and too far away for Liesel to see” (42).

The next day, Hans goes to the Nazi party office to check on his membership application. While there, he buys a used copy of Mein Kampf. It will play a part in the brainstorm he’s just had.

Liesel, accompanied by Rudy, goes to the mayor’s house to pick up the washing. She’s paranoid because she’s certain that the mayor’s wife saw her steal the book from the smoking rubble of the bonfire. The woman gives no sign that she knows anything, even though she did witness the theft.

On Liesel’s second trip for the washing a few weeks later, the woman invites her inside and shows her a wondrous library filled with volumes. Liesel feels overwhelmed but is afraid to touch anything. She thanks the mayor’s wife and leaves.

The scene changes to Stuttgart, where a starving Jewish man is hiding in a basement. His name is Max. He’s been waiting for days. Another man arrives with food, travel papers, a book, a map, and a key. The material has been sent by a man named Hans Hubermann in Molching. Max intends to travel to his house for shelter.

Liesel spends the summer reading the book she rescued from the fire. The Shoulder Shrug was written by a Jew, which is why it was condemned. She also spends time in the mayor’s library. The mayor’s wife reveals that she lost a son during World War I. He froze to death on a battlefield. Because her son froze, Mrs. Hermann leaves her windows open even in the coldest weather so that she can share her son’s pain; “[...] Ilsa Hermann had decided to make suffering her triumph. When it refused to let go of her, she succumbed to it. She embraced it” (48).

Aside from reading, Liesel passes the summer by playing soccer. She and Rudy also join a band of teenage thieves because there’s never enough food to go around. They successfully rob an apple orchard and gorge themselves on fruit.

One day, Liesel and Rudy find a coin lying on the street. They excitedly go to the store owned by Nazi supporter, Frau Diller, and ask to buy some mixed candies. She smirks and gives them a single piece. When they can’t cut it, the two take turns sucking on the candy until it’s gone.

Max Vandenberg is now on a train headed for Molching. He is terrified that someone will recognize his false identity papers. He carries Hans’s copy of Mein Kampf to prove his loyalty to the Nazi cause. Max thinks, “Strangely, as he turned the pages and progressed through the chapters, it was only two words he ever tasted. Mein Kampf. My struggle” (53).

Liesel and Rudy decide to waylay one of their classmates as he’s delivering farm produce to the priests at church. They spread water on a patch of pavement and wait for it to freeze. Once it does, their hapless victim’s bike goes spinning, and they steal the ham, bread, and eggs he was carrying in his basket. The two thieves then share their plunder with the rest of their gang.

Max makes his way furtively through the streets of Molching, looking for the Hubermann house. Hans sent him the key to the gate. He thinks, “How could he do this? How could he show up and ask people to risk their lives for him? How could he be so selfish?” (56). After hesitating a moment, he advances to the front door.