"All of them gone."

Germany during World War II is often thought of as an entire country, but the people of Germany--Aryans and Semitics--were both tragically affected by the war, just as much as in any other country. Liesel herself thinks of all the people she has already lost as she walks with Rudy: "Her mother. Her brother. Max Vandenburg. Hans Hubermann. All of them gone" (426). Many of those we are introduced to on Himmel Street have endured some sort of grief, and those who haven't are living in desperate fear of Allied bombs. Even though Liesel is still a child and barely (if at all) understands what politics or concentration camps are, she can see how terrible living in Nazi Germany is. She calls her heart "tired" (427), pulling the phrase from one of her books, which have likely shown her what the rest of the world is like.
Death also depicts in detail the horror of the "Dead Body Collectors", Hans's new job. Not only are there nameless dead everywhere (which explains the narrator's presence), but also there are tragedies that seem closer, with names and faces and mourning (or dead) families. Zusak even provides a boy, twelve years old, called Rudy, and very likely dead. Papa is severely affected by everything he sees, barely able to falsely reassure Liesel and Rosa in his letter, which Liesel calls a "disappointment" (438) in comparison to Alex Steiner's detailed reports.
As Nazi Germany progresses in its views of purity of race, it becomes more and more extreme. In the beginning of the war, the concentration camps housed political prisoners, who had a chance of being eventually freed. By the end of the war, the camps had escalated into mass-murder facilities. Aryans are also affected, though not nearly as severely. The "coat men" or "monsters" come for Rudy, apparently to recruit him for a program that will produce an elite race, in which participants "run barefoot through the snow" and "jump from ten-meter platforms into three feet of water" (409). Although this is supposedly considered a privilege, Rudy's parents understandably do not want him to join. But as Barbara Steiner says, "'When they come and ask you for one of your children...you're supposed to say yes" (419). Many things were covered up by words: she uses "ask", when in fact there is no choice. When Rudy's father and Liesel's Papa are drafted into the army, the Nazi party uses duty and threats to force them into it. In fact, Hitler used words to convince Germany to join him in his quest for world purification and domination.