Intolerance In The Book Thief

Not even the most powerful Germans could keep up with the deaths of so many people, and to this day there is no single wartime document that contains the numbers of all the deaths during the Holocaust. Although people always look at the numbers of people that were directly killed throughout the Holocaust, there were so many more that were affected because of lost family. Assuming that 11 million people died in the Holocaust, and half of those people had a family of 3, 16.5 million people were affected by the Holocaust. Throughout the books and documentaries that we have watched, these key factors of hate and intolerance are overcome. The cause of the Holocaust was hate and intolerance, and many people fighting against it overcame this hate

in The Book Thief, a representation of the Norwegian fight against the Holocaust in Paper Clips, the book Red Smoke, a collection of children's books, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas movie.
Far and through, The Book Thief is a perfect example of a rebellion against hate and intolerance.

The Hubermanns decide to hide a Jewish man in their basement, and this struggle to keep him hidden is a fight in and of itself. Even Germans (like the Hubermanns) that were against the Führer were not allowed to voice their opinion, and therefore helped in any way they could. Although military-involved Germans would discriminate very often, as shown in the quote, “‘The maniacal soccer player!’... Does he know? Liesel thought. Can he smell we’re hiding a Jew?” (Zusak 343), the people of Germany were very scared about the future. This laid the ground for Hitler’s downfall. In The Book Thief, Rudy defies hate and intolerance through a simple act of rebellion. He refuses to give the Führer’s birthday, and suffers for it. Throughout The Book Thief, Markus Zusak shows readers that hate and intolerance were overcome throughout Germany even in the darkest times of the

Holocaust.
In Whitwell, Tennessee, the Whitwell High School administration decided to create a project that changed the perspective on life for many of their students. The Whitwell students did not know much else other than the small town they lived in, and their endeavour to get six million paper clips was a show against hate and intolerance. Many of the children were crying throughout the documentary because the felt so deeply about this historical tragedy. The 24,000,000 paper clips that were collected were an overwhelming number, and every one of the people who donated paper clips were touched in one way or another. On the opening day of the Holocaust Rail Car, the children brought in a Jewish school to sing, and this was a powerful example of tolerance and love. As the documentary stated, not many of the people involved were Jewish, and this shows compassion because they were not necessarily the same as those people. The Holocaust project in Whitwell, Tennessee made such a huge impact on the community around them, and even an impact internationally through receiving help from a German school. The whole community came together to create a project that would touch so many.
Red Smoke by Veronica Fuxa is a prime example of overcoming hate and intolerance. When Jenna is selected to have tests done to her, one of the nurses fights for her and helps her to escape the maniacal doctor. All through Jenna’s life, she was very compassionate and showed this once she reached the “hospital”. She cares deeply for the other children, and helps to keep them alive. Jenna overcomes hate and intolerance through giving hope, and this is demonstrated in the quote, “This isn’t the end of the road, it’s the beginning” (Fuxa 142). This quote is very inspirational because Jenna has just escaped from the concentration camp and is helping her sister and her friend survive through some of the harshest conditions possible. Jenna’s sister also helps Jenna escape, and she helps Jenna realise that there is no reason behind the Holocaust. In Red Smoke by Veronica Fuxa, Ms. Fuxa displays a huge fight against hate and intolerance through a historical fiction story.
Hate and intolerance were the leading cause of the Holocaust, and many people tried to overcome this through children’s literature, and even a movie titled The Boy in The Striped Pajamas.

In The Boy in The Striped Pajamas, a young boy named Bruno is friends with a child in a concentration camp, even though he knows he is not supposed to. In The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss, some of the Sneetches have stars and some do not. This leads to a lot of bullying, but in the end allows the Sneetches to realize that the way that someone looks does not matter. In The Harmonica, the young boy that is given a harmonica uses it to help many people feel better throughout the time of hate and intolerance. The boy plays for many people that live in a concentration camp. In The Whispering Town, many of the people overcome hate and intolerance by helping the Jewish people escape. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and the many children’s books written about the Holocaust help overcome hate and intolerance in today’s world, so that something as awful as the Holocaust will never happen

again.
The Holocaust was a terrible tragedy that occurred because of hate and intolerance. People overcame this through books such as The Book Thief, a more modern representation of the Holocaust’s losses in Paper Clips, children’s books to help educate youth about this problem, and finally a movie called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The Holocaust was a huge tragedy, and overcoming hate and intolerance is still of huge importance in today’s world. Throughout all of the books we have read, a common idea is presented: Hate and intolerance have no place in this world, and we should do all we can to prevent it.