Obstacles In The Book Thief

More than 11 million Jews, Gypsies, and other groups died to things such as gas chambers, giant ovens, and firing squads during the Holocaust. The ones that survived had many obstacles to overcome in order to escape the horrors of Nazi Germany. These horrible events were created by prejudice and hatred, causing numerous problems for Jews and other ‘subhumans’. Even those that were German citizens were robbed of their basic rights. Any Germans caught helping these so-called ‘subhuman’ groups were persecuted and killed. People are beginning to forget this horrible genocide; some people even deny that it ever happened. Humans must remember these struggles so that it never happens again. These difficult problems and experiences among Jews and Germans …show more content…
The problems are numerous, from a lack of food to Nazis searching their basement. One detail that highlights the risk is when a Nazi comes to check their basement to see if it would be a good air raid shelter, and how they must plan to escape notice: “He rushed to the basement door and threw a warning down the steps,” (Zusak 342) Max manages to remain hidden beneath the staircase until the Nazi leaves, fortunately for the Hubermanns, and the basement is deemed too shallow for a shelter. Another obstacle that must be conquered is the slow loss of income as the wealthier families in town stop paying Liesel’s stepfamily to do their laundry, especially Ilsa Hermann: “[Ilsa] gave her a final look of bathrobed sorrow… When the others had canceled it hadn’t hurt [Liesel] so much,” (Zusak 259). She makes up this loss of her favorite place to read, the mayor’s library, by sneaking in every once in a while and stealing a book out. One of the biggest threats to innocent people, German or otherwise, were bombs. Liesel must find a way to stay calm during these attacks. “... For comfort, to shut out the din of the basement, Liesel opened one of her books and began to read… The children were soothed by her voice and the adults saw visions of the Whistler running from the crime scene,” (Zusak 381). By reading a book out loud …show more content…
The first hindrance that these students encounter is a lack of support from the outside world. Few people know of this town and fewer still know about their paper clip collecting project. When a pair of reporters visits the town and spreads the word however, the clips and letters start flooding in. Another major problem that they must overcome is a lack of storage space for the millions of paper clips they finally receive after a pair of reporters draws attention to them. They fill closets and rooms with buckets, boxes, barrels, and other containers filled with paper clips. Eventually, they decide to put the paper clips in a German rail car, such as the ones used to transport people to death camps, but they are blocked from doing so at first because they can’t find a place where they can obtain a German rail car. Eventually, they find a place that has an old-fashioned rail car from Nazi Germany and they purchase it for their memorial. The final problem that they face is moving the rail car into position and installing screens to put the paper clips behind, which was difficult to do without damaging the rail car. The people of the town manage to install glass screens and plaques onto the car and complete their Holocaust memorial.

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