The Holocaust and The Book Thief by Kyleigh Cooper

Three things I learned while searching the websites were:
-Beginning around 1939 Hitler started the “Euthanasia” program, which was the killing of mentally ill or disabled people. Part of this program was also the killing of babies and toddlers who showed signs of having disabilities. They would simply put the children “to sleep." This was done by giving them drug overdoses. In the end about 200,000 individuals were murdered through the "Euthanasia" program.

-Auschwitz was responsible for the largest amount of European Jews murdered. Over one million people were killed there. Nine out ten of them were Jews.

-Many other groups were persecuted besides the Jews, such as the Roma. They were more commonly known as Gypsies. They were said to have alien or “degenerate” blood, meaning that they were criminals and inferior.

The Book Thief starts out at the beginning of World War II from the European perspective. Liesel has been separated from her family and put into foster care. Her father is missing (probably dead), her brother died and she doesn’t know where her mother is. For many Jewish families this is what their situation was like. Many had no idea where their family members went and sadly, if they were even still alive.