Use Of Nazi Propaganda In The Book Thief By Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak displays the power words possess over the fate of people's lives such as Max's, Leisel's, and Frau Holtzapfel's. Unfortunately, Max's life is destroyed by hateful words: German propaganda, Mein Kampf, and Nazi speeches and rallies. During the holocaust, social stigma surrounded Jewish people. To be Jewish was to inherently be underserving of natural rights and freedoms. In Adolf Hitler's attempts to eradicate the Jewish population, he utilized propaganda to further the growing dislike of the Jewish people. Nazi propaganda encouraged violence towards Jews. In The Book Thief, Max Vanderburg is a Jewish man living in Germany under the rule of Hitler. The Nazi propaganda that glamorizes hatred of his people, slowly tears away at the life he knows. The words of …show more content…
The words force Max out of his home and into hiding. The words endanger the Hubermanns who only wish to keep a human safe. The words enable Max to be sent to a concentration camp, to be starved and beaten. Along with propaganda, Hitler also popularized antisemitism in his autobiography Mein Kampf. Max and the Jewish people were the scapegoat for Germany's problems. Common literature such as Mein Kampf, further demonized Jewish people. With the circulating lies told of the Jewish people Max's life became undesirable. The words that in Mein Kampf directly ruined the life of a man. To an even greater extent, Nazi speeches and rallies whipped the crowds into rage-filled frenzies. Frenzies that made it difficult for Jewish people to live peacefully. Each time antisemitism was preached, it was