The Book Thief Chapter 18

100 Percent Pure German Sweat

• Liesel and the girl and boy divisions of Hitler Youth reach the middle of town, where the church is.
• After a group "heil Hitler" the youths are let free.
• A huge pile of books and papers is being built.
• Liesel's own books are so precious to her, and she knows that there's something not quite right about burning books.
• Still, she wants to see.
• She looks for Rudy and waits for the fire to start.
• A Nazi stands at the podium and calls for quiet from the crowd.
• He says that soon Germany will soon get rid of the Communists and the Jews.
• Liesel remembers that her father was called a Communist.
• She realizes that her family's poverty, the fact that her parents are missing, and her brother's death are because the Nazis hate communists like her father
• She's sick to her stomach.
• Death tells us that forty million people died in World War II.
• Now the book burning begins.
• Someone calls Liesel's name. It's Ludwig Schmeikl (the boy she beat up on the playground).
• Liesel thinks he'll be mean or rude, but he isn't.
• He's hurt. The crowd has trampled him, and his ankle is in bad shape.
• Liesel helps Ludwig to the steps of the church.
• He thanks her, then apologizes for teasing her that day in the school yard. She apologizes for beating him up.
• Ludwig's ankle continues to bleed as he and Liesel watch the books burn.