Students will think about morality and the power of words.

1. THE BOOK THIEF:
MORALITY AND THE
POWER OF WORDS
By Ilana LaGraff

2. Student Objective:
What makes a person good or bad? How can words have such powerful consequences or benefits?

3. Some things
you may not
know about
Judaism.
Judaism focuses on the relationship between God and mankind.The focus is on
life, rather than afterlife.
Jews don’t believe in the eternal flaming version of Hell. According to Jews,
“Hell” can be thought of as a washing machine. People who don’t regret and
amend their wrong-doings go through a rough and painful process, but only so
that they can be cleansed and prepared for Heaven.
Nowadays, many Jewish people call themselves “secular.” Over half the Jews in
Israel don’t believe in God or any of the religious aspects of Judaism. Half of the
Jews in the US don’t belong to any synagogue.And yet these people are still
consider themselves Jews and are accepted by other more religious Jewish
people.
Judaism has turned into a culture as well as a religion.That’s why secular Jewish
people are still considered Jewish and accepted by the more orthodox Jews.
The Star of David is a relatively new symbol for Judaism thought to represent
the shape of King David’s shield. (He is the biblical King of Israel.) It was so rare
before, that experts suspect forgery if they find it in early works.

4. Why did
people
listen to
Hitler?
How did he
come into
power?
Here are a few reasons:
• After WWI, Germany was embarrassed by the defeat and in an
economic depression.The people lacked confidence in their
government, theWiemar Republic. Germany wanted a new
leader.
• He did not force his way into office, he won the vote and was
elected Chancellor under the National Socialist GermanWorkers’
Party—Nazi party for short. Hitler gave hope to many people and
was believed to be Germany’s savior.
• Who liked Hitler?The millions of unemployed, the young
people, and the members of the lower middle class (small store
owners, office employees, craftsmen, and farmers).
• Hitler was extremely talented at public
speaking , and made a lot of powerful
promises to the people. He promised a
better life and a better country, and
gave the people something to unite
over—a common enemy: theJews.

5. Fatal Attraction to Hitler (1989) – Clip Nazi Propaganda

6. Hitler is
notorious
for being
evil, but did
he do
anything
good?
• Hitler campaigned against
smoking and led the Nazi’s in an
anti-tobacco movement.The ad
to the right says “He does not
devour it (the cigarette), it
devours him.The Chain Smoker.”
• He supported animal rights. He became a
vegetarian, created conservation laws,
and banned testing and experimentation.
To the right is a propaganda poster
showing animals saluting Hitler.
• He created a welfare program for people
in need, decreased the rate of
unemployment, and made Germany's
economy stable again.
• But does this or anything else he
may have done outweigh the bad?

7. Despite Hitler’s intention to build a better Germany and be a good leader to the
people, he was still the root cause of many horrible atrocities.
Total Death Count:
Anywhere from 50 – 80+ million
*Statistics vary
So was Hitler fully and completely evil?
Can good people do bad things and bad people do some
good?
What about his supporters, or the bystanders living in
Germany at the time?

8. Alex Steiner
(Rudy’s
father.)
Frau Diller
(The candy
store
owner.)
Hans
Hubermann,
Jr. (Hans and
Rosa’s son.)
Ilsa Hermann
(The mayor’s
wife)
Franz
Deutscher
(Leader of
Rudy’s Hitler
Youth group.)
Choose 3
characters to
find a quote
about. Refer
to Guided
Notes.

9. Interview
with the
author of
The Book
Thief,
Markus
Zusak
destroyed people with words.
That is how he was able to make people behave and do
the things that they did.
The story starts with Liesel stealing a book and really
she’s stealing the words back and writing her own story.
What would you say is the
theme of the book?
I think stories and words make us who we are.
They are what we carry around with us.
It is the story of a girl growing up in Nazi
Germany. In the world she lives in, Hitler has

10. The Power of
Words:
Part 1
“I hate the Führer,” she said. “I hate him.”
And Hans Hubermann?What did he do?What did
he say? Did he bend down and embrace his foster
daughter, as he wanted to? Did he tell her that he
was sorry for what was happening to her, to her
mother, for what had happened to her brother?
Not exactly. He clenched his eyes.Then opened
them. He slapped Liesel Meminger squarely in the
face. “Don't ever say that!” His voice was quiet,
but sharp.
Yes, the Führer decided that he would
rule the world with words. “I will
never fire a gun,” he devised. “I will
not have to.”
The words.Why did they have to exist?Without
them, there wouldn't be any of this.Without
words, the Führer was nothing.
Liesel, however, did not buckle. She
sprayed her words directly into the
woman's eyes…Now she became
spiteful. More spiteful and evil than
she thought herself capable.The
injury of words.Yes, the brutality of
words.

11. The Power of Words:
Part 2 There were the erased pages of Mein Kampf,
gagging, suffocating under the paint as they turned.
She didn't dare look up, but she
could feel their frightened eyes
hanging on to her as she hauled the
words in and breathed them out. A
voice played the notes inside her.
The sound of the turning page
carved them in half. Liesel read on.
This time, she did not reach out – she stopped.
Somewhere inside her were the souls of words.
They climbed out and stood beside her.
“There was once a strange, small man,” she said.
Her arms were loose but her hands were fists at her
side. “But there was a word shaker, too.”I have hated the words and I have
loved them, and I hope I have made
them right.

12. Introduction
to our next
assignment:
Night by Elie
Wiesel
StoryCorps
Debbie Fisher
Night is autobiographical.That means that
ElieWiesel wrote about real events that
happened to him.
While reading the book, think about what it takes to not
only survive the camps, but to keep your will to live.
How do you think survivors of the Holocaust are able to
move forward with their lives?
Think about Max, and what his experience
as a Jew was.
Although Max’s story was similar to what a
lot of Jews went through at the time, it is a
fictional account.
This novel takes place in the concentration camps. More
specifically, the largest of the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz, where
more than 1 million people died.
Before moving on…
• Think about how
the characters in
The BookThief
were affected by
the war and the
Holocaust.
• What was the role
of color in the
novel?