The Book Thief Chapter 58

The Long Walk To Dachau

• About four miles from Molching, Death comes upon a convoy of Nazis taking Jews to Dachau. They are in trucks. A man has died and Death takes him.
• The Nazi decide to make the Jews walk. One of the Nazis says, "It's perfect weather for a parade" (58.13).
• Liesel and Rudy are playing soccer on Himmel Street and they hear the parade, though they don't know what it is.
• From a high window, Liesel hears a woman say, "Die Juden […]. The Jews" (58.23).
• We are given the sixth word from Liesel's dictionary, "Elend – Misery" (58.24).
• Liesel sees Hans up ahead, and she and Rudy join him.
• At first he seems about to take them home, but he sees it will be next to impossible to stop Liesel from watching this.
• As she watches, Liesel feels awful. She makes eye contact with a few of the Jews and feels helpless.
• She hopes they can see that she cares.
• She wants to tell them about Max.
• But she doesn't, and she knows it's pointless anyway.
• In a minute, Liesel is going to see an example of what happens to people who try to help Jews.
• One of the Jews, an older man, very thin, falls down.
• A soldier forces him up. This is repeated several times. Soon the man will be dead.
• But, suddenly, Hans is giving the man bread.
• A soldier approaches.
• First the soldier whips the Jewish man severely, and then he turns the whip on Hans.
• Liesel and Rudy help Hans home.
• When he gets home, he's flooded with fear.
• He's afraid that now the Nazis will come to the house, discover Max, and take them all away.
• He says, "Oh my God, Liesel, what have I done?" (58.91).
• Death agrees that Hans now has a problem.