The Horror Of The Holocaust Exposed In The Book Thief By Marcus Zusak

During WWII, Nazi Germany was a tumultuous and ideologically corrupted place. The Book Thief, a book by Marcus Zusak, tells the story of a foster child living in a small German town during the events of the Holocaust and the bombings. The book is classified as historical fiction, meaning that the characters and town did not actually exist, but the events, setting and details of the book are seated in historical fact. The portrayal of life in Nazi Germany as depicted in The Book Thief is accurate, specifically regarding the lives of children under Hitler, and the rallies, book burnings, and anti-semitic elitist ideology of the Nazi Party. The book may not be perfectly correct, but if nothing else, it precisely encompasses the general ideas of

When Liesel turns ten, she is sent to the meetings. “Ten years old meant Hitler Youth… Being female, Liesel was enrolled into what was called the BDM. It stood for Bund Deutscher Madchen - Band of German Girls.” (Zusak, 40). The author details how the girls were taught to properly heil Hitler, and to march straight. They were taught to sew, to roll bandages, and were taken hiking, not dissimilar to some ideologically demented form of the Girl Scouts that exist today. In regards to these details, the overall idea of the historical Hitler Youth was well portrayed, but the reality of the movement was structured with more complexity. “Girls, ages 10-14: Jungmadelbund… Girls, ages 14-18: Bund Deutsche Madel…” (Yelland, Young People in Nazi Germany). Zusak places Liesel's enrollment in the BDM four years early. At the age of ten, she would have been first enrolled into the Jungmadelbund, the group for girls from ages 10 to 14. This inaccuracy has little consequence to the overall accuracy of the facts about the activities of the Hitler Youth as written in The Book Thief, and the integrity of those ideas hold up to be true to