This spring break I’ve been reading the Book Theif, by Marcus Zusack. (pgs. 1-402)

The main thing that you need to know before reading this book, is that its based from death. I really want to discuss the part that I’ve remembered most so far in the book.There were 3 German trucks that broke down outside of Munich. It carried Jewish prisoners. The officers would laugh and say,” How long has it been since these Jews have had fresh air?” So they march 3 truckloads of Jews thru Munich, like a parade. Some of the German wittnesses were Hans Hubberman and his fosterdaughter Liesel. As they watched a malnourished Jew had fallen 4 different times in front of them. His arms shook as he tried to lift himself up off the ground. Hans, dismayed, handed the Jew a piece of bread. The man hugged Hans’ ankles and wept. This caught the eye of a German soldier who pulled out a whip and beat the man, and after turned it on Hans while calling him a ‘Jew Lover.’ His daughter Liesel, watched helplessly. After the incident Hans became worried due to Max, the hidden Jew in his basement. He knew that the Germans would come.

This book had a big impact on me so far considering all the studying our class has been doing lately on the Holocaust. I also recently had the opportunity to visit the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. Therefore, I have based the overall opinion that this was the worlds darkest moment. There is something I’ve recently learned, and that is that there are people in the world that believe that the Holocaust never really happened, EVER. Personally, I believe that this is a huge slap in the face to the Jewish people everywhere, and basically makes them no better than the Nazis. The craziest exhibit in the museum were, “The piles of shoes.” This was the exhibit in which all of the original shoes from Jews were collected from the holocaust concentration camps, and sent to the museum, and it hit me really hard. It was such an emotional, and dark place, and I would really encourage anyone to visit there sometime in their life. It was one of the most moving days of my life….

“We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses.

We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers,

From Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam,

And because we are only made of fabric and leather

And not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the hellfire.”

– Moses Shulstein (1911-1981), Yiddish Poet