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Part 3: The Aryan Shopkeeper
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Book Thief, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Death
Words and Language
Books
Stealing and Giving
Color, Beauty, and Ugliness
Summary
Analysis
The story returns to Max Vandenburg, the Jew, but now he is on a train for Munich, and holding a copy of Mein Kampf. His friend Walter Krugler had gotten him the book with the train tickets and a key inside. Max cut his hair and left. On the train he sweats and worries the whole time, and he reads Mein Kampf to avoid suspicion, recognizing the irony that Hitler's book should be the book to save him.
The great irony of Max's escape is that Mein Kampf, the book that fanned the flames of anti-Semitism in Germany, should be the thing to save him. With it he can pretend to be a "real" German, presumably also anti-Semitic. Max's stress and danger are contrasted with Liesel's currently carefree life.
Themes
