The Role Of Good Deed In The Book Thief

The article ‘Teens against Hitler ', by Lauren Tarshis, Describes the hardships and courageous acts of Ben Kamm, a Jewish ‘Partisan’ or fighter against Adolf Hitler during the Holocaust, and all Jews who faced the challenges during that tragic time. The Jewish only wanted a normal life, but German leader, Adolf Hitler, wanted to make sure all Jew would perish. So, they began piling Jews into concentration camps to kill them, Hitler would work them to death, starve them, and even murder them in gas chambers. Then, The ‘Partisans’ began to fight against Hitler and his army. This act of courage, despite the challenges and risks they faced, help many Jews survive the most horrific event in history, The Holocaust.

Hans Hubermann felt guilty because he was confused about why Erik Vandenburg would die for him. Hans felt unworthy of what Erik did. He channeled this guilt into different emotiions and actions. Hans had the compassion to take Liesel in as one of his own, he had no problem with working through her problems. Hans stepped out of the social normality at the time to help a Jewish shop-keeper paint his vandalized door. He also took Max Vandenburg, a run-away Jew that was sent to Han’s house, fully aware of what though times may lay ahead. Throughout the entire book Hans uses his guilt to preform good deeds for others.

While imprisoned, he and other Holocaust victims witness appalling scenes and are given the choice of work or death. Eventually, after months of persecution,

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, shows the theme statement of surviver's guilt can be dealt with through kindness and friendship, and is proven in how characters manage the guilt by assisting the living. To start, Hans' life is

Though Max Vanderburg is a target towards cruelty because he is a Jew, it does not mean due to this cruelty that he cannot be a loving and caring character. “Thanks, Liesel,” (245). Simple words of thanks Max says towards other characters that shape him into a better character, displays the warm-hearted characteristics inside of a Jew who is thought as cruel. During the time Max stays in the basement of the Hubermann’s, he puts his time into good use. As he says his goodbyes to Liesel and the Hubermann’s in the novel

Guilt is like a disease that plagues your thoughts, until it gets to much too handle. Why did I do that? Why had I not done something? Why him, not me? Guilt is a theme in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, from important characters, like Liesl's guilt for not telling her foster mother Ilsa Hubermann, that she loved her, to minor characters, like Michael Holtzapfel hanging himself over the fact that he survived Stalingrad, but his brother didn’t. Guilt directly affects the characters, changed how the story goes, and the tone of the story and the mood reader.

By giving the Jew a piece of bread, Hans has shown the world how humanity has a capacity for good amongst all the evil at the time. Hans' action was a "small, futile miracle", highlighting how much his kindness meant to the Jewish man. These Jews had been mistreated for years, and for this old man to be treated with such kindness highlights the capacity humanity has for good even after all the evil that has happened, and provides a contrast from the cruelness of the Nazi soldiers to the love and kindness of Hans' actions. "Hans Hubermann held his hands out and presented a piece of bread, like magic" describes how amazing this action was for the Jewish man, and how much it meant. When something is "magic" it is incredible or unbelievable, which emphasises how kind and amazing the deed that Hans did was. It also shows how something so small as a piece of bread can bring so much joy to someone, as the Jewish man had been starved and the bread was probably the first piece of proper food that he had eaten in a long time. This "magic" brought a lot of joy to the Jewish man, and shows how humanity has the capacity for good through acts of kindness. The Jewish man's reaction was described as "burying his face between his hands and thanked him". This reaction is one of pure gratefulness and thankfulness, being so happy that he cried. The gratefulness the Jewish man had was not because he had a piece of

Guilt is a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense; real or imagined, and affects normal people everyday at various stages of life. When loved ones and those that are close pass away, it is not uncommon for those left behind to experience feelings of accountability known as survivor’s guilt. In Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, survivor’s guilt can be identified in three main characters: Liesel, Max, and Hans, and creates profound emotional and behavioral effects on these characters throughout the novel. The debut of survivor’s guilt appears after the death of Liesel Meminger’s little brother, Werner.

Kindness can be defined as the the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Kindness can be found throughout the novel, The Book Thief, people need kindness from people to rely on, since the book is set in such a horrific time period. Liesel, one of the main characters, is a young girl who is living in the time of the holocaust, she is having a difficult time with coping with the death of her brother and now being set to live with strangers. Zusak uses a few characters to bring Liesel happiness, as she already been through enough, and has so much to go through. A few people including: Hans Hubermann,Ilsa Hermann, and Rudy Steiner show Leisel miniscule humble acts of kindness and affect Lisel´s life.

It is a challenge to reconcile human beliefs in compassion and morality with the actions, or inactions, of bystanders in the Holocaust. How is it possible that hundreds of thousands of people stood by while millions faced pain and suffering? Before exonerating or condemning all of them, it is necessary to consider the differences in bystanders. For the context of the Holocaust, a bystander is someone who was neither a target of the Nazis or a Nazi themselves. Putting all of these people in the same group is an oversimplification, because it ignores the power system in place during the Holocaust and the various positions of bystanders in that system. The wealthy business owner is not the same as the working-class mother of four. In this situation, one has considerable power and ability, and the other does not. Applying a blanket statement, and calling the latter unjust when they are ordinary people in a time of horrific war is contrary to reason. It is also necessary to consider the extent of bystander’s actions. Have their actions merely helped to ensure their own survival, or do they directly hurt Holocaust victims? The magnitude of each situation is varied. In conclusion, to gauge the morality of a bystander’s actions, they need to be judged on an individual basis, with two qualities in mind: that person’s ability to act and the effect of their actions.

When many think of the Holocaust as a solely negative experience, and while it may seem easy to write the event off as a dark time in history that seems remote and unlikely to affect us today, there are some positive results, including the lessons that it brings for current and future humanity. The lessons that the Holocaust brings are applicable to every person in the world. While many of these lessons do focus on the negative aspects of the Holocaust, like what circumstances permit such a vast genocide and how many people can die because of widespread racial hatred, there are also those that focus on how some people, in all parts of Europe and throughout the world, retained their good human nature during the Holocaust. For example, what made some gentiles in Europe during that time willing and able to help Jews. Currently, Yad Vashem has recognized 26,513 rescuers throughout the world (Names), and the actual number of rescuers could likely be close to twice that amount (Baron,1). It is important that we analyze the reasons behind these rescuers’ choices to be upstanders instead of bystanders because we can learn about our own motivations when we face decisions between helping others and protecting ourselves, and possibly those we love, from harm. Fulfilling one’s self-interest was a potential motivation for helping Jews that will only be briefly addressed. This type of rescue potentially benefitted both the Jews and the Gentile rescuers; these Gentiles only helped Jews survive because they found personal gain, likely social or economic, in the action (Baron). However, in the situation that existed while rescuing the Jews, most efforts included the high possibility that both the rescuer and the rescued would end up worse off than they had begun with no potential for personal gain on either side. So those rescuers’ motivations are less easily explainable.

During the early stages of the Holocaust a boat of refugees escaped Nazi Germany and fled to the United States. As they arrived the U.S immediately told the boat to return to Germany. How could my country be so cold blooded?They sent them back to be brutally murdered or sent to concentration camps. The lack of compassion at the beginning of the Holocaust was clearly shown here. This was a chance to save hundreds of people from the Nazi’s. The U.S wasn’t able to accept what was occurring on the other half of the world. Which lead them to showing no compassion for the refugees leading to even more casualties during this terrifying time period. The times that compassion has ever effected me the most when I was showing it towards others.Helping people out of some of their most depressing times just makes me feel even better about myself.It has shown me that sometimes you must put people’s feelings and beliefs before your own. That is one of the most important life lessons I will ever

First to go is Max Vandenburg and then her beloved Papa. Hans Hubermann did help a Jew, which started the downhill spiral of loved ones leaving. Liesel wanted to comfort her papa from his decision for, “she’s never seen a man so devastated,” but she also knew Max had to leave and she knew, “Hans Hubermann was to blame” (399). Yet another downfall in Liesel’s life, her treasured relationship with Max was torn away by the foolish actions of her papa. She wanted to forgive him, but she knew she could not. Max, the person that built Liesel up and believed in her words was gone. A flame of inner conflict arose in her body, she loves Hans dearly, but today he was not a remedy to the numbness. He was the cause. In a matter of time Hans knew he would also leave Liesel and that day did come. She begged him: “Don’t go, Papa. Please. First we lost Max. I can’t lose you too” (423). During this time period, the consequences for helping anyone of the Jewish faith is being sent to the battlefront or death. Liesel does not realize this now, but Hans being sent away is a much better fate than being sentenced to death. She needs him to stay. She can not take anymore loss right now. The most important people in her life have vanished and all she can do is wait and hope they will come back one day. More cracks are pushing towards the surface of her heart, and it is slowly breaking. The only saving grace is words. Sharing words with Frau Holtzapfel undoubtedly disguised the sadness and brought small amounts of bliss. In the beginning, reading to Frau Holtzapfel was a job, “Come to my place and read it to me,” she said to Liesel (387). Goods were exchanged for Liesel’s work, which was helpful for the Hubermanns, but after Hans left reading to Frau Holtzapfel was much more. Reading is no longer a chore, it is an escape. Daily readings created an unseen realm that takes her on journeys far away from Himmel

The acts of human nature can become a very difficult concept to understand. Markus Zusak uses Death throughout the The Book Thief to express the complexity of human nature. Death illustrates how complicated beings humans are and how they hold the capacity to act in both evil and beautiful ways. Throughout the novel Death helps give readers insight to the ignorance displayed and the pain it may cause a person. In the most troublesome and discriminatory times of the Holocaust, Death will point out the beautiful acts of compassion carried out by characters involved in the novel. Sometimes beauty and pain is mixed within the sacrifice some make for those they love and are loyal to.

There is a part where we watch as humans are so ugly that it is hard for us to imagine that what they had done is possible. Liesel is playing soccer in the park and all of a sudden all the kids stop because of a noise they hear coming down the street. They think it could be a herd of cattle, but that not what it is. It is a group of Jewish people being led, or forced, to the death camps by German soldiers. On there way we watch a man die “He was dead. The man was dead. Just give him five minutes and he would surely fall into the German gutter and die. They would all let him, and they would all watch”(Zusak 393). This is talking about how when a Jewish person would die, the Germans wouldn’t do anything. They wouldn’t care that a man died right in front of them. While the Jews are walking Hans, Liesel adopted father, gives them bread. While Hans is giving this man bread a German soldier notices what is going on. He walks over to the man and, “The Jew was whipped six times. On his back, his heart, and