Part 2 Chapters 4-8

   The fourth chapter starts off with a scene of the future Liesel, in 1943 when Liesel had become fourteen years old. She sits in the basement writing in a small dark-covered book, with Hans sitting with the accordion at his feet. He said "you know Liesel? I nearly wrote you a reply and signed your mother's name. But I couldn't. I couldn't bring myself." Here, the flash-forward ends, and we're back in 1940 again. For all throughout January and February, Liesel would search the mailbox for her mother's reply. But the letter just didn't seem to be there. In mid-February, Liesel was given a letter from another ironing customer, the Pfaffelhurvers. It was to announce they would no longer be asking for the washing and ironing anymore. (Probably because people were losing money due to the war.) When her birthday came around, there was no gift prepared for her, simply because there was no money. Though Rosa was arguing Hans that he should've never given her both books for Christmas, Liesel actually didn't mind. She swallowed the disappointment and calculated a risking attempt for a present herself. She gathered all the accrued letters to her mother, stuffed them into one envelope, and used just a tiny bit of washing and ironing money to mail it. But three days later, Rosa found out that there was not enough money for her regular wages. Although Liesel lied at the beginning, saying that one of their clients must've paid them lower, she eventually spits out the fact. For that, Liesel was beaten up by, and all she could do until Hans came back home, was to lay down on the kitchen floor. Although Rosa apologized, she felt "dark", even Hans's accordion sounded dark to her that evening.

   The fifth chapter is about the preparation of the celebration for Hitler's birthday. But before that, it does talk about the letter a bit. Liesel looked inside her mailbox every day throughout March and April too, but unfortunately, she did not get a reply from her mother. Recently, as preparation for Hitler's birthday celebration, Liesel would see people from the Nazi Party banging on doors of Molching to ask for things to burn. Things to burn included things such as newspapers, books, posters, flags, or any propaganda of their enemies. When it finally was the day of Hitler's celebration, Hans Junior (their son) and Trudy (their daughter) came home for the afternoon eating, like they did at Christmas or Easter. However, old tensions do rise up. When it got to Hans and Hans Junior, they were two different people; the young man was a Nazi, and his father was not. Hans Junior called him out for not being a part of the Nazi Party, saying he never cared about his country anyways. He even looked at Liesel (who was reading one of her books) and said that she should be reading Mein Kampf instead of this "trash". When the argument heated up, even more, Hans Junior walked out the door, his father going after him. Hans begged him to stop but he ended up leaving soon after. The narrator explains that things eventually did not work out for Hans Junior, and after vanishing from Himmel street, he ended up in Stalingrad. (The place would go through the war in near time.) Soon after eating, Liesel put on her Hitler Youth uniform and headed out the door.

   The sixth chapter started with the marching of the Hitler Youth divisions. The children were gathered and they were instructed to march in groups, towards the town hall and square, where there would be the gathering and bonfire. When they reached the town hall and square, everyone cried one united "beil Hitler" and were free to wander. Liesel looked around for Rudy, but she was caught inside the mess of uniforms and high-pitched words. A few moments later, a man stood on the podium and the speech started. A few words in, he caught Liesel's attention. It was the word"kommunisten". This was the only word she knew had to do something with her biological father. (Aside from that, she knew or remembered nothing about him.) With a bit of thinking, she saw it all so clearly now. Her starving mother, her missing father. Kommunisten. Her dead brother. She needed to get out of the crowd but on her way, she was caught by Ludwig Schmeichel. His ankle had been bleeding from the stepping of other excited children, and so was asking her to help him get out of the crowd. Managing him to drag across to the back, they staggered to the steps to the side of the church. He thanked her for getting him out, and Liesel apologized to him for the punches and kicks. (Back from the incident they had back in November last year.) Ludwig apologized too.

   The seventh chapter started with Liesel sitting on the steps, remaining from the last chapter, her eyes set on the remains of the bonfire (including the stray ash and corpse of collected books.) Ludwig was no longer there and most of the crowd had vanished too. Hans found her and sat next to her on the church steps. He knew something was bothering her and so he asked. Liesel asked if her mother is a communist, and Hans lied saying he had no idea. She asked a question again if the Fubrer took her away. Hans replied saying "I think he might have, yes." As Liesel felt the slush of anger inside of her, she said: "I hate the Fubrer ". Hearing her say that, Hans slapped her in the face and said: “Don’t ever say that!” The truth was, Hans was facing one of the most dangerous dilemmas a German citizen could face for almost a year now, and Liesel had no idea. Looking gravely at Liesel’s cheek, he warned her she could say that in the house, but never on the streets, at school, or at the BDM, ever. According to the narrator, this was a rehearsal for a future lecture, when all of Hans Hubermann’s worst fears arrived on Himmel street later that year, in the early hours of a November morning. At the bottom of the steps, they both sat there saluting the Fubrer as the voices “Heil Hitler” repeated itself. Perhaps a quarter of an hour later, they sat there together rolling cigarettes.

   The eighth chapter started with Hans and Liesel walking back home from sitting on the steps of the church. They were walking past the bonfire site and through a small side road onto Munich Street. As they were, a middle-aged carpenter named Wolfgang Edel called out. He was someone who built the platforms for the Nazi big shots to stand on during the fire and now was in the process of pulling them down. He called out to Hans and they started having a conversation together. Liesel wandered toward the mountain of ash, where there were people cleaning them up. They came back and forth from a truck, and after three return trips, the heap was reduced where Liesel could now see a small section of living material from inside the ash. Watching the men walk toward the truck, Liesel moved in and reached her hand in and took a book. It was blue, with red letters pressed into those fibers, and one of them said “Shoulder”. (There wasn’t enough time to read the rest.) With some people still wandering around the square, she was quick enough to hide the book under her shirt so no one would notice. She went back to Hans and smiled to both of the men. However, she noticed that she could feel someone watch her. With her no mistaking watched feeling, she looked around and saw the shadows over the town hall, and to the side of the collection of silhouettes, another one stood. Just then, Liesel realized two things, one, the shadow’s identity. The shadow’s hand was in its pockets, it had fluffy hair, and if it had a face, the expression on it would be one of injury. The other thing she noticed is that the shadow had seen everything.