The Book Thief Chapter 63

Punishment

• Death says that everybody in Nazi Germany gets some kind of punishment.
• Those who survive are punished with "poverty and guilt when the war is over and six million discoveries were made throughout Europe" (63.1).
• (Six million is the generally accepted number of Jews killed in the Holocaust. Other groups and individuals considered "different" were also targeted, including Gypsies, homosexual people, and disabled people.)
• Hans wants to be punished.
• His punishment: the approval of his application to the Nazi party, and his conscription into the German Army.
• Liesel's hand tremble as she reads the words on the letter informing him.
• Later Liesel will wonder how many other men, like Hans and like Rudy's father, got letters like this.
• It shows that Germany is desperate, running out of soldiers.
• Later she will look at the sky and describe it to an imaginary Max Vandenburg.
• A week later, Alex Steiner gets a letter like Hans'.
• His punishment for not giving them his son.