This is especially obvious in the conversations between Hans and his son, Hans Junior. Hans and his son are reported by Liesel to be arguing about politics on Christmas Eve (88). Additionally, Hans Junior, believing his father to be old fashioned and unpatriotic, often has frustration toward Hans and Hans 's apparent dislike of the Nazi Party (104). Then, Hans Junior goes one step more and leaves his parents ' house—and them—forever but not before calling his father a coward (105). Later in the book, Rosa learns from Michael Holtzapfel that Hans Junior was fighting in Russia (467). This goes to show that sometimes simple blood-relation means relatively little to actually being a …show more content…
Liesel 's foster parents are not lesser parents than her biological ones, and the story suggests that Hans and Rosa Hubermann may have been closer to Liesel than they were to their own biological offspring. Max 's family was strong and built on generations of traceable genetics. In the end, The Book Thief supports the proverb: the biological-blood factor of family is not as important as the experiences, struggles, promises, and, in some cases, secrets that are shared between people. Maybe the Nazis could have benefitted from learning that in their quest to create one, biologically-pure "German