Holocaust and Book Theif, by James Cosgrove

1. Many of victims of the Holocaust would actually swallow their possessions to keep the Nazis from finding and destroying them. One lady even swallowed her diamonds, and would keep repeatedly swallowing them.

2. The Nazis actually killed over 1.5 million children; Jews, Gypsies, and even just children with mild disabilities. Some of the children were even subjected to medical experiments.

3. When the U.S. was presenting evidence at Nuremberg against the Nazis, they had over 3,000 tons of documents that the Germans themselves recorded. The Nazis actually filmed themselves doing many of these inhumane acts, which the U.S. also used as evidence.

These connect to the book thief in many ways. All people have things that are valuable to them, like Liesel's books. Liesel probably wouldn't swallow the books, but she would do all she could to protect them. Liesel and all the children were definitely affected by these acts, as many of their classmates were probably killed too.