"Was this Germany?
Was this Nazi Germany?"
The obvious answer is "of course." The setting in Nazi Germany is the basis for the entire plotline. However, in this, and other cases, this is not true. In Hitler's Nazi Germany, Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, and other people deemed "inferior" are not only despised, but nonexistant. In Hitler's Nazi Germany, all subjects are unflinchingly united behind the Fuhrer. In Hitler's Nazi Germany, "Aryan" people not only rule but are the entirety of the populace. However, here, we have so-called "superior" Germans sympathizing with and feeding the hated and "inferior" Jews. Earlier, Death told us that 90% of Germany's population did stand unflinchingly behind Hitler. However, that 10% that doesn't, including the Hubermanns, Liesel, and Rudy, keep Hitler's dream from becoming reality. Liesel's and Rudy's actions defy what Nazi Germany really is. Nazi Germany doesn't include feeding Jews, or even acknowledging their humanity. These actions, however small, are as much opposition to the ideals of the Nazi Party more than the Jews could ever be.
The line that really made this particular portion of the text interesting to me was actually the line before that:
ReplyDelete"...Liesel watched the boy. How things had changed, from fruit stealer to bread giver...She heard his stomach growl-and he was giving people bread."
The obvious meaning of that line alone is that Rudy Is maturing and learning to think of the needs of others before his own; but if we take into account the next two lines (was this Nazi Germany), another meaning becomes apparent. The idea of telling one race of people that they are superior to all other races and telling most other races that they are worthless and less than human could not be more selfish and self-serving. However, the idea of a young boy who is starving and almost never has enough to eat giving bread to people that he recognizes as less fortunate as himself does not at all line up with the idea of an elitist race. Hitler, based on the way that he controlled Germany, lacks a shred of human kindness or compassion; but Rudy, in giving up bread while starving, seems to be the exact opposite. He rebels against the ideals of Nazi Germany, and against Nazi Germany itself.