Holocaust Search-Alex Crowell

1. I learned that Hitler had a right hand man named Josef Goebbels. He made public speaches along side Hitler. He was the cheif architect of the Kristallnacht attack on the German Jews. He was also the propaganda minister. One of his first acts was the "burning of books" rejected by the Nazis. He exerted total control of the media, arts and information in Germany.

2. I learned that nearly 2 out of every 3 Jews were killed at this time. The Holocaust was in fact and extermination of people not for who they were but for what they were. It truley did not matter if they were the smartest man alive or an ispiring doctor. No, the only thing that mattered is that you were a Jew, and Jews were not excepted in Nazi Germany.

3. I learned that it was complete perfect timing for all of this. The Holocaust started after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. The country of Germany simply had nothing, it was poor and there was really nothing to it. Their economy was complete trash and they needed a leader to get them out. Tada! Hitler rose to action. Its crazy to me how people say "I can't believe Germany did that to people" Truly, most of the German people were completely innocent. They did not know what was going to happen to their neighbors whom were Jewish or Black, Hispanic, etc. If you were in such bad shape and someone promised you they would make everything better, of course you'd put every ounce of faith into that person.. Hitler just abused the power.

How does this relate to the Book Theif?
There is a part in the book (pg. 93) were it is talking about the different people Liesel sees while delievering laundry and ironing. The Weingartners have a "bent wiskered cat" named Little Goebbels. From my first paragraph you can see this name is of account of Hitlers best associate. Also in the book chapters "Hitler's Birthday, 1940" and "100 Percent Pure German Sweat" (pgs 101-114) it is talking about the bonfires that Josef Goebbels put into action with the Burning of Books. Another contributing factor put into the Book Theif would be my third paragraph talking about how the people of Germany did not know what was going on. On page 60 Rudy and Mr. Steiner are having a conversation where Mr. Steiner is trying to explain to Rudy why he cannot go around painting himself black. Rudy keeps asking why, why, why. He even says "Do you have to pay to be Jewish? Do you need a license?" Its so sad to me seeing that these children are being told to be discrimatory towards certain people while, as you can see, they cannot even tell the difference.