"The Book Thief"

I feel as if I've been manipulated. No. I have been manipulated. But that's all right. That's what movies are supposed to do.

In this case I'm referring to “The Book Thief,” which I saw last night. It's the story of Liesel, a young German girl during the Second World War – probably the daughter of a Communist woman – who is taken to live with another family. During the film we watch her developing a love of books and reading,ⁱ and we see the the struggles over the years of her new family, presumably typical of those living under the Nazis, especially as they involved their efforts to protect a Jew, Max, whom they hid in the basement.ⁱⁱ

Depicted in the production were three types of Germans – most prominently the good but fearful Germans,ⁱⁱⁱ like Liesel and her adoptive parents, who were willing to take risks for the downtrodden; the large number of loyal and patriotic citizens hypnotized into submission by Hitler and his advocates; and those who were evil. The last group included such individuals as a child named Franz who was both stupid and a bully. The narrator of the film is Death, himself.^iv

All in all, I came away from the movie with the clear impression that the Germans were a good people who were manipulated by the few who were evil. They lived in fear; the remained silent if they had any reservations, and they cooperated with their rulers only so they wouldn't stand out.^v I get no sense of the true horrors of the Holocaust, even though Kristallnacht is shown along with Max's plight and, momentarily, that of a Jewish store owner. Were there mass killings of Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals? Did the Nazis experiment on people and eliminate the weak? Presumably everyone knows about that, but it is barely hinted at in “The Book Thief.” Even “Death,” who makes his product almost attractive since it will come to all of us (in this movie it will be in the form of billowing clouds in a beautiful blue sky) sees no need to mention any of the millions murdered by the Third Reich. Indeed, there is no need to bring up the Third Reich at all.

I wound up with the feeling that the Germans were really a good people who were suffering under an intolerant regime, and they were making the best of it. That's at variance with everything I've learned up to this time – especially in the work of Daniel Goldhagen – that there was a strong component of antisemitism in the “cultured” and “advanced” German society, and the scapegoating of the Jews, and other “inferior” people, was acceptable to the German People, and to many others, and was widely accepted and acted on by them. But perhaps that was the manipulation, and the version I viewed last night was closer to the truth.

In any event, “The Book Thief” was a “feel good” movie that restored my faith in the basic humanity of the German People. It may have been fiction, but it was a fine movie. How can puffy clouds in a blue sky be bad?

I        Encouraged and assisted by her new “poppa.”

ii       Max was another co-conspirator in her new-found reading program.

iii      And this group includes Frau Heinrich, the wife of a Nazi official, who befriends Liesel and lets her read some of the books in the family library. At times Liesel “borrows” some of those books for reading at home.

iv       Death seems to have taken a liking of Liesel who is depicted as brave, honest, and faithful. (She's a real Boy Scout.) So Death lets her live until the age of ninety.

v        There is a scene in which Liesel, and friend named Rudi, yell out their hatred of Hitler when they are in an isolated area and won't be heard. Even so, that hatred seems to be based on how the Nazis have affected their own lives and was not in any way related to any greater evil which they perpetrated.