How an Accordion Can Change Someone's Life

Here we go with another part of The Book Thief!


This week is part four, basically where Max meets the Hubermanns.




So basically, Max Vandenberg is a Jew.  Back during this time period, Jews weren't particularly treated the same as other people in Germany.

Woah. Hold up.  How does Hans know Max you might ask.

Well, during the Great War that Hans fought in, Erik Vandenburg taught him how to play the accordion. 

Click here to read more about The Great War.

Basically, without Erik, Hans wouldn't be alive and he wouldn't be a huge part in this book.

Sergeant Schneider asked the soldiers who has neat handwriting.

Erik replied with:

"It said, 'Hubermann, sir.'  The voice belonged to Erik Vandenburg.  He obviously thought that today wasn't the appropriate time for his friend to die"(177).

Because Erik said this, Hans wrote letters for the captain instead of dying that day in war.

Because of this, after war, Hans found the Vandenburg family and says that he will paint their walls to return the favor.



Now... Twenty years or so later...

Instead of getting their walls painted, Max Vandenburg, Erik's son, is sent to Hans' house to hide because he is a Jew.

Let's talk a little more about Hans..

Hans requests to be a part of the NSDAP, an acronym for National Socialist German Workers' Party. (NSDAP is actually an acronym for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the German translation,)

The NSDAP was a political party as we know as the Nazi Party.

To learn a little more about the Nazi Party, click here!

The book says:

"When Hitler rose to power in 1933, though, the painting business fell slightly awry.  Hans didn't join the NSDAP like the majority of people did.  He put a lot of thought into his decision"(180)

He is never accepted because he helps Joel Kleinmann by painting the door of his clothing store.

That is just the beginning of the book, so here is a summary of the whole part!

That's all for this week.. See you sooon! (: