The loss of loved ones steals away the innocence from children because they are being separated from their closest …show more content…
Most kids in their childhood only think about the wonders of the world and they are as free as doves. They are free enough to make their own decisions with only the influence of their parents. The harsh reality of this novel is that life in Germany is not all about rainbows and unicorns. Here, kids are forced to believe in certain things and not what they choose. One of the places where they learn about adoring for Hitler is in Hitler Youth. Rudy disagrees with everything he is taught there and decided to rebel against those beliefs. One of the main facts that the kids are supposed to learn is the Hitlers birthday and this was asked to Rudy and he answered with the birth of Christ. During his time in Hitler Youth, Deutscher made Rudy run various amounts of laps. One day he had to run and Rudy said “The field at Hitler Youth just got fertilized. It’s cow manure” (283). Deutscher already knew that there was manure out on the field but since he hates Rudy, he made him run anyways. Life in Germany did not seem to be going too well for Rudy. On another note, kids are normally out playing and always having fun. In Germany all the fun the kids were able to have was to be able to play soccer. As they were playing soccer one day, basements were being inspected for air raid shelters. Liesel had to find a subtle way of making it into her house without drawing too much attention to herself since Max was still hiding in their basement. She caused herself an injury as it states in the book “As the ball rolled off, players ran in. Liesel held her grazed knee with one hand and her head with the other” (340). She needed to inform her foster parents that basements were being checked and that they had to hide Max. Luckily they were able to hide him in time and he was not discovered. Liesel was forced to keep the secret that they were harboring a Jew and most