Course : C' Class

Plot
In February 1938, a voice representing Death
tells about how the young Liesel Meminger has
piqued his interest. In one of the opening scenes,
Liesel is travelling with her mother and younger
brother on a train. On the way, her brother dies
and is buried next to the tracks. Liesel steals her
first book, titled The Grave Digger's Handbook,
when it falls out of the gravedigger's pocket.
Liesel is then brought to her new home in
Munich, where she meets her new foster parents
Rosa Hubermann and Hans Hubermann. Rudy
Steiner, a boy who lives next door, accompanies
her on her first day of school. When the
teacher asks Liesel to write her name on the
chalkboard, she is only able to write three Xs,
revealing to her classmates that she is unable to
write. She is taunted by her schoolmates who
chant "dummkopf" ("dunce") at her. One of the
boys, Franz Deutscher, challenges her to read
just one word to which Liesel responds by
beating him up. She impresses Rudy, and they
become fast friends. When Hans, her foster
father, realizes that Liesel cannot read, he begins
to teach her, using the book that she took from
the graveside, and a giant chalkboard. Liesel
becomes captivated with reading anything she
can.
Liesel and Rudy become members of the Hitler
Youth movement. While at a Nazi book burning
ceremony, Liesel and Rudy are harassed into
throwing books onto the bonfire by Franz, but
Liesel is upset to see the books being burned.
When the bonfire ends and everyone leaves,
Liesel is still there and she grabs a book that has
not been burned. She is seen by Ilsa Hermann,
wife of the Burgermeister (mayor). When Rosa
asks Liesel to take the laundry to the mayor's
spacious, gated house, she realizes that the
woman who saw her taking the book is the
mayor's wife. Much to her surprise, Ilsa takes her
into their library and tells Liesel she can come by
anytime and read as much as she'd like. One day
Liesel is found reading by the mayor who not
The Book Thief (2013)
117
only puts a stop to her visits but dismisses Rosa
as their laundress.
During “Kristallnacht”
(Night of Broken
Glass), Max
Vandenburg
and his
mother, who
are Jewish, are told by friend that only one of
them can escape, and Max's mother forces him
to go. Max's father had saved Hans' life in World
War I, and hence he goes to the Hubermanns'
house where Rosa and Hans give him shelter.
Max initially stays in Liesel's room while
recovering from his trip, and they begin to
become friends over their mutual hatred of
Hitler. World War II begins, initially making
most of the children in Liesel's neighbourhood
very happy. Max is moved to the basement so
that he can move around more, but it is cold and
Max becomes dangerously ill. Liesel helps Max
recover by reading to him books "borrowed" from
the mayor's library with every spare moment.
One day while "borrowing" a book from the
mayor's home, Liesel is followed by Rudy. He
discovers the secret of Max, whose name he
reads on a journal Max gave to Liesel for
Christmas. Rudy guesses that her family is
hiding someone, and he swears to never tell
anyone. Franz overhears Rudy's last words of
keeping it a secret and violently pushes Rudy to
reveal the secret. Rudy throws the journal into
the river to keep it away from Franz. After Franz
leaves, Rudy plunges into the icy river to rescue
the journal, and Liesel realizes that she can truly
trust him. Soon, a local party member comes by
to check the Hubermanns' basement, and they
have to hide Max.
While working, Hans sees a
neighbour and friend named Lehman
being taken away by the police
because he is a Jew. Hans tries to
intervene, telling the officer that Lehman
is a good man, but Hans's name is taken by the
soldiers and he is thrown to the ground. Hans
realizes what a mistake he has made, since this
has made his family visible. He tells the family,
and Max realises he must leave in order to
protect them. Hans then receives a telegram
that he has been conscripted into the army and
must leave immediately.
On the way home from school, Liesel believes
she has seen Max in a line of Jews being
forcibly marched through town, and she begins
screaming his name, running through the line.
She is thrown to the sidewalk twice by German
soldiers and finally relents when Rosa picks her
up and takes her home.
Hans returns home after being injured, and
the family is reunited only for a short time. One
night the city is bombed by accident, and the air
raid sirens fail to go off. Hans, Rosa, and Rudy's
family are killed in the blast. Liesel was spared
from the bombing because she fell asleep in
the basement while writing in the journal given
to her by Max. She sees her foster family on
the ground, dead, she cries and hugs them.
Neighbours bring Rudy out of his house, barely
alive. He begins to tell Liesel that he loves her,
but he dies before he can finish the sentence.
During this scene, Death is heard speaking
again about how he received the souls of the
dead. Liesel passes out, and one of the soldiers
carries her to a stretcher. When she wakes up,
she sees a book among the rubble and picks it
up. She then sees the mayor and Ilsa drive up.
er visits but dismisses Rosa
cht”
d that only one of
forces him
rld
is
s
8 Book burning, now and then
118
With Ilsa being the only friend she has left, Liesel
runs up to her and hugs her.
Two years later, after Germany has fallen to the
Allies, Liesel is working in the tailor shop owned
by Rudy's father. Max enters. Overjoyed by his
survival and return, she runs to hug him. The
final scene is Death speaking again about Liesel's
life and her death at the age of 90, mentioning
her husband, children, and grandchildren, as
we look over her modern day Manhattan Upper
East Side apartment with pictures of her past
and a portrait of her, upon which the camera
lingers. The narrator does not state whom she
married but implies that she became a writer.