In the thirtieth through thirty-second chapters of The Book Thief, Max Vandenburg arrives at the Hubermann household. Death gives us a brief backstory on how Max came to arrive in this particular house (from Max’s point of view) and Liesel’s relationship with her foster parents becomes a little bit confusing. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Book Thief.
The pace for The Book Thief seems to have rapidly increased with the arrival of Max Vandenburg. I wasn’t going to say it, but….HAS SHIT STARTED TO GET REAL? I mean…this surely is going to be the main thrust of the novel, isn’t it? I feel like Zusak could take this in so many directions; it’s only 1940 and we’ve got a lot of story to tell until the second time Hans Hubermann avoids Death in 1943. But to start things off, we focus on Liesel Meminger.
CH. 30: A GOOD GIRL
In November 1940, when Max Vandenburg arrived in the kitchen of 33 Himmel Street, he was twenty-four years old.
Ok, yes, that actually makes sense considering when Erik died, but HOLY SHIT I THOUGHT MAX WAS MUCH, MUCH OLDER THAN ME. Jesus christ, how did he end up this way?
What’s initially apparent is how unbearably overwhelming this is for max, that the sheer idea of surviving what he’s gone through, to make it to Hans’s house and find that Hans is indeed real and willing to take him in. I can’t even fathom that concept. It’s entirely alien to me.
Hans checked that the curtains were properly closed. Not a crack could be showing. As he did so, Max could no longer bear it. He crouched down and clasped his hands.
The darkness stroked him.
His fingers smelled of suitcase, metal, Mein Kampf, and survival.
Frightening. So I imagine that now we’re going to deal with Max being hidden in the basement of the Hubermann household. But there might be a complication: Liesel. Max’s attention is instantly drawn to the sight of her, and it’s not explained why he seems so bothered by the fact that Liesel exists. Is he worried about the peripheral damage he might cause her by being in the Hubermann house?
“Don’t be afraid,†she heard Papa whisper. “She’s a good girl.â€
Well, shit, could Max be worried less about hurting Liesel than in Liesel turning Max in? This book sure got uncomfortable real fast.
CH. 31: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE JEWISH FIGHTER
I didn’t expect this so soon, but Zusak further fills in the narrative gaps of what has happened to bring Max to the Hubermann household, this time focusing on the perspective of the scrawny German Jew. And oh boy, what a tragic, depressing story this is.
Zusak calls Max the “Jewish fighter†for a reason: from an early age, Max was drawn to the physicality and brutality of fighting. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t understand this because I was always drawn to the opposite. I mean this in the least judgmental way possible. It’s just not who I am, but I get that it is for other people. (I actually had a conversation about this recently, on a side note. I have literally never been in a fight and I’ve always assumed I’d be awful, but what if I am secretly like the most badass fighter of all time and I don’t know it. Well, I’d rather not be in a situation where I have to test that out, honestly.)
Not many people who came from his neighborhood were fighters, and if they were, they didn’t do it with their fists. In those days, they said the Jews preferred to simply stand and take things. Take the abuse quietly and then work their way back to the top. Obviously, every Jew is not the same.
I like that distinction made at the end. I think it’s a good thing to state often, to avoid overgeneralization and erasure, and I like that it’s included here to work both ways: Max was not like other Jews and other Jews were not like Max. There are an innumerable amount of things to be, behaviors to act out, things to believe, and so on, and just being Jewish doesn’t mean that your life will be lived out by a cookie-cutter set of rules or stereotypes.
For Max, life wasn’t ever easy, and maybe that’s why he was so drawn to fighting. Losing his father at age two, moving in with his uncle after his mother couldn’t handle things on her own, and being forced to deal with six very violent cousins helped shaped what we’ll come to learn is Max’s personality.
At thirteen, tragedy struck again when his uncle died.
As percentages would suggest, his uncle was not a hothead like Max. He was the type of person who worked quietly away for very little reward. He kept to himself and sacrificed everything for his family—and he died of something growing in his stomach. Something akin to a poison bowling ball.
I don’t think Zusak is going to a literal description here, and what he spells out in the next page or so is what caused Max to completely develop the violent, forceful, and confident physicality that would make up the bulk of his life. Max Vandenburg watches his uncle go out of this world without a fight. And Zusak never takes Max to a point that is entirely absurd, but acknowledges that Max was young when his uncle died, and perhaps the tragedy of this occurring in his youth certainly brought him to a much more extreme conclusion:
Of course, at thirteen, he was a little excessive in his harshness. He had not looked something like me in the face. Not yet.
Max resolves that his life at that point will not end as his uncle’s did. As he puts it:
“When death captures me,†the boy vowed, “he will feel my fist on his face.â€
Personally, I quite like that. Such stupid gallantry.
Yes.
I like that a lot.
Max’s life isn’t simplified by this dedication to violence, and I wouldn’t want to paint the story that Zusak is telling here as something overly childish or simplistic. We only get just a piece of Max’s life, and the one Zusak feels is most relevant to how he ends up at the Hubermann household. What is given is a the contrast we need later. Max loves to fight:
He enjoyed the tight circles and the unknown.
The bittersweetness of uncertainty:
To win or to lose.
It was a feeling in the stomach that would be stirred around until he thought he could no longer tolerate it. The only remedy was to move forward and throw punches. Max was not the type of boy to die thinking about it.
And all of this is incredibly relevant. We read about Max’s fighting, his ferocity, his impatience and impulsive nature, his desire to be active and forceful, the union and beauty he finds in these acts of physicality. And we learn that through these fights, Max meets Walter Kugler. And fights him. He calls it Fight Number Five. He’s shorter than Walter, nowhere near as skilled, and far too jittery to seem like any sort of threat. But it’s this first fight that builds the future between these two. Here, in their first confrontation, Max shocks everyone:
Kugler, suddenly blinded, shuffled back, and Max seized his chance. He followed him over to the right and jabbed him once more and opened him up with a punch that reached into his ribs. The right hand that ended him landed on his chin. Walter Kugler was on the ground, his blond hair peppered with dirt. His legs were parted in a V. Tears like crystal floated down his skin, despite the fact that he was not crying. The tears had been bashed out of him.
That’s a great start to a friendship, right???
Despite that Walter and Max start off on this foot, they become friends, and their friendship is tested by a lot of things: Time. Distance. Heritage. The rise of Hitler. Chance. They always stayed in touch, but now we’re getting much closer to the present.
Then came November 9. Kristallnacht. The night of broken glass.
It was the very incident that destroyed so many of his fellow Jews, but it proved to be Max Vandenburg’s moment of escape. He was twenty-two.
I guess I never considered that this was how Max came into the care of Walter Kugler; I’d assumed their pact of hiding was made as strangers, maybe acquaintences, but Zusak seems to drip everything in tragedy. Well….this is history. Fictionalized, yes, but I know that this happened to people, maybe not in this exact order with the exact names in the exact places, but the Jewish diaspora was very real during this time. So this isn’t like reading other books, because the tragedy isn’t an invention. It’s history.
And Max’s history involves an impossible chance on November 9, 1938. The Nazis come for Max’s family, and Max himself is shocked to discover that the Nazi party member at his door is Walter Kugler. Walter offers him the chance to escape; Max is initially resistant to the idea, refusing to leave the rest of his family behind, but he obliges once his family is on board with the plan:
When he was pushed out by the rest of his family, the relief struggled inside him like an obscenity. It was something he didn’t want to feel, but nonetheless, he felt it with such gusto it made him want to throw up. How could he? How could he?
Consumed by guilt at feeling relieved that he might survive, Max takes a piece of paper from his mother, who says that, “This could be your last hope.†We know what that is. Hans Hubermann. And that’s how things are set in motion.
We find out for sure that Max was stuck in hiding in the building where Walter worked for two years. TWO YEARS. And maybe that’s why I thought Max was so much older than he was. But Max suffers through two years of solitude and waiting. And this is why I think it’s important that Zusak frames this flashback in the way that he does. We learn that Max is a violent, active, and physical man, and then he is put in this situation that is the polar opposite of that. There’s no violence, there’s no force, and he simply waits. He waits. And he waits. He learns his family has disappeared. And he waits.
As the situation becomes more dire and terrifying, both Walter and Max turn to that final resort: the name on the scrap of paper that Max’s mother gave to him. Walter lays out the plan: He’ll visit Hans Hubermann. If he’s a Nazi, he’ll turn back and forget the plan entirely. What’s there to lose?
When Walter returns, we get a bit more insight into why Max was so concerned about Liesel:
“He’s fairly poor, he’s married, and there’s a kid.â€
This sparked Max’s attention even further. “How old?â€
“Ten. You can’t have everything.â€
“Yes. Kids have big mouths.â€
“We’re lucky as it is.â€
So Max is concerned that Liesel is going to…I almost typed “tattle†Which is really not the best word for this situation. But Liesel isn’t the person to be worried about.
CH. 32: THE WRATH OF ROSA
I didn’t even like the mere title of this chapter, because I was so concerned for Max. Would Rosa stand for this?
After ten minutes of excruciating discipline, Liesel made her way to the corridor, and what she saw truly amazed her, because Rosa Hubermann was at Max Vandenburg’s shoulder, watching him gulp down her infamous pea soup. Candlelight was standing at the table. It did not waver.
Mama was grave.
Her plump figure glowed with worry.
WHAT. So….wait. Why is Rosa acting this way?
Somehow, though, there was also a look of triumph on her face, and it was not the triumph of having saved another human being from persecution. It was something more along the lines of, See? At least he’s not complaining. She looked from the soup to the Jew to the soup.
When she spoke again, she asked only if he wanted more.
Look, I’m not going to venture the idea that Rosa is acting out of character, as we haven’t gotten a full back story on her, but….WHAT THE FUCK. We have literally never seen her act even REMOTELY this affectionate or caring over the course of the entire book. WHAT THE HELL.
Even when Max throws up the soup after eating it too quickly, she is not quick to insult and berate him. She just orders him to move out of the way and cleans up the mess he made.
When she was finished, she found the young man at the kitchen table, utterly morose. Hans was sitting opposite, his hands cupped above the sheet of wood.
Liesel, from the hallway, could see the drawn face of the stranger, and behind it, the worried expression scribbled like a mess onto Mama.
She looked at both her foster parents.
Who were these people?
Oh boy, this book is getting so real. MUST READ MORE BRB.
I sort of got the feeling that Rosa was mostly violent and irritable about things that aren't too serious. For instance, she insults her husband daily, but after Hans Jr. called Hans Sr. a coward and stormed out, she didn't yell at him at all. In another example, she was so uncomfortable when she saw how much Liesel was suffering in the wash-money incident. I don't think she seriously intends to hurt people (though it definitely does happen), she's just really abrasive.
I got the feeling that she wasn't exactly happy about Max being there, but she doesn't want to KILL him. At this point, any angry action she took towards him could very well lead to that. So, I don't think it's out of character for her to act this way. Of course, I'm reading right along with you, and there has been no Rosa backstory, so I could be way off!
I totally agree. Actually I guess we said sort of the same thing, but your comment wasn't up when I started typing mine. 😉
I find Rosa to be a fascinating character. She doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve like most of the others, so we're never quite sure what's going on in her head.
I think you summed Rosa up nicely. She isn't affectionate, but she isn't incapable of caring. We also already know she's been a foster mom before Liesel showed up, so she's used to bringing strangers into her house. Whether or not she's happy about it is something else.
Yeah, I think you've got it completely right about Rosa. I was actually kind of surprised that Mark was so surprised, I think Rose is really quite a worthy person underneath her bluster and temper.
This was the point where I started to love Rosa. She often comes across as brash or abrasive, but she's never cruel. Her swearing and occasional beatings of Liesel arenot unreasonable for the time – they're never meant as abuse, and I don't think Liesel ever takes them as such.
We've seen before, in the incident with Liesel's letters to her mother, that Rosa has a softer side, and here with Max we see that it's not just restricted to her family – she, like her husband, will always help someone in need, without question.
I feel like the defining aspect of Rosa's character is that she never deals out to those who can't take it and fight back. Though she might be rude and argumentative by nature, she's never really malicious, and I think she's a lot more kind and sympathetic inside than she lets on.
Actually, I think Rosa is fast becoming my favourite character.
Except RUDY FOR PRESIDENT! 😉
Yeah, looks like we were typing pretty much the same thing at the same time! I hope we get a little more information about how Rosa's life has shaped her. She's pretty much the only main character whose life history we know nothing about.
This needs to happen, yes? It would be such a sad moment, but I can't help but think it would go down like Gene Wilder's character getting shot by the little kid in Blazing Saddles. A little bit of comedic triumph for Max at the end.
Maybe it's just because there's a slight tone shift to Death's aside here, but the "here are two women Max has been with" thing seemed strange and kind of awkward to me. It feels a bit out of place to me, and a small part of me thought that maybe it was just put there to shut down any Walter/Max shipping. 😉
I like that Death was trolling re:Rosa's reaction, building up the suspense, hinting at her being "the wild card," casting their eventual meeting with a sort of ominous light, and then the only reaction Rosa has to Max is essentially "hello, starving person, come prove to my family that my soup doesn't suck."
Aww, I saw it as showing Max's attempts at leading a typical life, but being thwarted by the Nazis taking away his citizenship, his job, and what little security he had. YA shippers have made you cynical!
(I realized after I wrote this that young adult media don't even own half the blame for shippers. Oh, internet…)
I was actually going to edit my comment with the reason for that just as you replied.
It's because I don't think to ask those types of questions about characters, since I'm not big into fictional relationships. I generally don't bother with the dating/shipping aspects of most books, and with a few exceptions usually gravitate toward wanting characters to end up Forever Alone.
I think that another part of it is just that I got used to not hearing Death's more conversational tone (the "yes" in the middle of the sentence bothered me in particular), and it just threw me off for a moment.
I'm sorry, I hate when that happens! I haven't really been noticing Death's asides until this chapter. Actually, the one that made me pause was the one you first quoted! It doesn't really make sense to ask questions about Max's romantic relationships since they aren't as important as the rest of his brief history, so I see what you mean about it seeming awkward, but I think it's still a good thing to reference. A short aside like that is a little out of place, though.
Your final paragraph is made of win.
hello, starving person, come prove to my family that my soup doesn't suck
Amazing amazing amazing. Rosa's pea soup is the best continuing element in this book so far.
First, yes, shit is absolutely real.
Second, I somehow missed that Max was only 24 here, too. I was picturing someone in his 40's somehow– maybe because he seems so weary.
Finally, I really like seeing this side of Rosa. I don't think it feels strange for her– I got the feeling that under all that harsh brashness she really cares a lot. I think we saw a bit of this when she said "I'm sorry" to Liesel, where she was genuinely upset that the girl's mother couldn't be found. And while it's obvious Hans and Hans Jr. fought a lot about Hans not joining the Nazi party, we don't see any real objection on Rosa's part. They do seem well-suited for each other somehow, even if outwardly they don't look it.
I love the chapter with Max's backstory, mostly because I'm like you – violence is completely repugnant to me. And yet this is what these immensely strong friendships are made of. I love the line about how the enemies in the fighting circle are a mere centimetre from being friends (or something, I don't have the book at work).
I was a complete wreck reading it. To leave your family to who knows what – and to go into who knows what completely on your own. And for Walter, to hide Max – to have the presence of mind and the guts to even come for Max on Kristallnacht, before it's too late… And for Max to be alone in the dark in an empty storeroom somewhere where Walter used to work (and presumably others still work) for two effing years – holy CRAP. I can't even.
Oh god and what if Max had been found in the storeroom, or arrested on the train? He's carrying a map to 33 Himmel Street and its front door key. Hans would be a goner.
Seriously, this book. I cannot comprehend any of this – and yet, like you say, this is history. I have never had to be scared like that, or been tested like that, and it's very easy to sit here warm and full and safe and tell myself I'd do the exact same thing for my friends – hell, for total strangers – but I have no idea. How would you ever ACT NORMALLY if you were running that sort of risk? I don't blame Max for being anxious about Liesel. Is she really going to manage not to let anything slip, even to Rudy? I HAVE FEAR.
Sorry this is so long!
I think Max made a comment that the map was in his head– he'd destroyed it before leaving, probably for exactly that reason.
Oh thank God! I feel better now!
…about the well-being of fictional characters. Yes I am well-adjusted.
Oh, you're not alone. I get so worked into the suspense of the books I read, I'm on tenterhooks when the characters are at risk!
I seem to remember it being something like "he followed the map to Molching in his mind," but I don't think it mentions if he destroyed the map or not.
I posted something similar to your last paragraph, it's something I can't help but think a lot about, reading this book. I have so much respect for these characters, and infinitely more for the real life people who put their lives at risk for friends and strangers, because they were people too. It's absolutely amazing.
Oh shit, I didn’t read chapter 32. So I ignored all comments to avoid being spoiled.
I read “Fight Number Five with Walter Kugler” as Max’ fifth fight with Walter, so he had already lost four times. Did I get this wrong?
Okay, wrong guess. Walter Kugler was sent to Poland, not Libya.
Is “Vandenburg” Max and Erik’s real name, or does Death use the name from the faked identity card? I would have been disappointed if Zusak had given Max a clichéd german-jewish name like “Goldblum” or “Silberstein”, but “Vandenburg” doesn’t look german at all, it’s netherlandic, isn’t it? Since it wouldn’t be wise to travel using the faked identity of somebody from an occupied country, it has to be their real name?
As far as I understand, unlike the german von the netherlandic van doesn’t imply nobility, it just means that the name derives from a location, so Vandenburg is “from the castle”, but not necessarily a knight. Burgmann would be the german equivalent.
My own name doesn’t sound german (of course it’s not really Graubart) and family legend tells it came from hugenots who escaped from France when Louis XIV insisted that everybody had to be catholic. But I never saw any evidence for this, and to me it doesn’t sound french either. May it be bretonic or occitanian? Or is the legend just a legend? I don’t really care. So many folks tramped through central europe over the centuries and millenia, Romans and Vandals and Huns and Vikings and Mongols and travelling traders from every high culture that ever existed in history. (Well, every non-american high culture. If europe had ever seen mayan or aztec or incan traders, we would have an alternate history.) There may even have been a native american brought to an european court as a curiosity, and didn’t homo sapiens come from africa anyway? The only thing I’m quite sure about is: I’m a Terranian, or an earthling, if you prefer this alien pidgin language.
My apologies for the distraction, it seems my thoughts went astray.
So Walter and Max had once been enemies? I loved that line where “even enemies were centimeters from being friends” (paraphrasing, I shouldn’t do this at the office where I don’t have my book). For me, it was just the other way.
It seems weird now that I once called a bully “friend”, but for some years in middle school, I knew that this boy would be there whenever I needed help, and that he would beat me up whenever he felt like it. He had always been smaller than I, but he was fast, reckless and cruel, and normally I’m the most peacefull person you can find. So I had never been able to win a fight. Our “friendship” ended when he tried to bully me one time too much, and I freaked out like Liesel (this seems to develop into a late response to chapter 12).
I was fourteen, and I could never remember how it had happened. When I found myself sitting on him, punching his face, I was so scared that I let him go immediately and never since dared to rise a hand against anybody. But in a certain way it felt good to know that I can freak out when it is necessary, and that there would be no more bullying. Never, in no way, by nobody. Untill I was seventeen.
It was dark, it was raining, and we were alone on this bridge over the railroad, in mid-town, but the next buildings seeming to be miles away. The other day, my big, strong, older brother had been beaten up in this same place by two guys who had approached under the pretense to ask for cigarettes, but I couldn’t avoid to go this way. It was my way to school, and I had astronomy lessons in the evening.
They were two, and they asked for cigarettes.
I shook my head (I never smoked), smiled and closed my umbrella (there was no broken wand in it). Confused? They certainly were. They asked me if I intended to use this umbrella as a club to beat them. No, I didn’t exactly intend to do this. I intended to die in an attempt to pick eyes, bite throats, break skulls and rip these guys into little pieces. So I continued to smile, never saying a word, untill they luckily ran away. It was the scariest experience ever (for all of us, I hope).
I never told this to anybody, and I had nearly forgotten that it had happened. What have Mark and Markus and all you fellow readers done to me?
Going home now to read chapter 32 and then the comments.
Sorry to treat your comment so flippantly, but really. That last image of you just smiling at them as you contemplated attack? BADASS.
This is why we can't have nice things. Hey now, it's all human beings; the internet only makes it easier to put it out there and for other people to find!
The ones that always weirded me out the most were Bible fanfic and real-person fic, which is usually band/celebrity fic. I find it really strange to fictionalize and slash real people's lives. o_O
Yeah, I deleted the last part of my comment because I realized it could be taken the wrong way, but I once saw a Grant/Lee fic that made me laugh and hate humanity. I think Bible fanfic is hilarious in a bad way, too. It's soooo weird to slash real people, but I can't help but gawk at the trainwreck. It's sort of like reading "My Immortal."
I love the tension these chapters are steeped in.
Liesel doesn't know what is going on, and that is what poses a threat to Max. That in not understanding, a child can let slip something that needs to be secret. But Liesel is smart, she's got secrets of her own, she's fiercely loyal to Hans, and she has her own reasons for hating the Nazi party or leaders. So I feel pretty certain that she'll come quickly to understand and do her part to hide Max.
But right now, Liesel doesn't know what's going on. A (from the description) seriously ill and haggard looking man has arrived and suddenly everyone has sprung into secrecy, worry, and extreme caution. Even when it's not as obvious as it must be here, kids pick up on it really fast when the adults in their lives start changing their behavior and acting weird for some reason. I find that kids have amazing perception and intuition, generally. And Leisel says "who were these people?"
I already feel so awful for Max. I know that I have never been in anything even remotely resembling his situation, have never even known anyone experiencing the type of persecution and terror a Jew in hiding in Nazi Germany had to live through and live with. I know I'm lucky in that I probably (pretty much certainly) never will have an experience akin to this. But I'm sure we've all studied it, read personal accounts. It's an historical period that we are so far doing a good job of never forgetting. (Books like this, although they're fiction, help teach history, and keep it alive, so that hopefully it doesn't repeat itself.)
So essentially, what I mean is that I can only imagine the fear and paranoia of hiding, the guilt of being able to hide when others, like Max's family, can't. And then Zusak makes it even more tragic in this particular situation. Max, to survive, has had to deny and suppress the elements of his personality that used to help him survive and be strong. What that must do to you mentally, on top of the strain of living your life in a dark cupboard. Or basically of not living your life, in order to live. Zusak is a brilliant writer and this is a tragic story.
Fight Club!
"That’s a great start to a friendship, right???"
It's just like the snowball that began Liesel and Rudy's friendship! I see a pattern here…
wow i just realized what your username is. brilliant.
love this chapter
The tears had been bashed out of him.
Max is Todd Ingram!!
Augh! I'll feel really bad if something happens to Rudy now! 0_o
Hey, Buttercup was just fine!
We don't know that for sure… he could have been down to 6 or 7 lives by the end there.
One of the things I find so fascinating about this books are the following questions, sometimes in combination:
Violence vs brutality
Fighting vs aggression
Gentle vs weak
Harsh vs cruel
and so on
Guys, Max is Sirius Black! Seriously! (siriusly) Look at this quote from Mark: "We learn that Max is a violent, active, and physical man, and then he is put in this situation that is the polar opposite of that. There’s no violence, there’s no force, and he simply waits. He waits. And he waits."
IT WORKS, BITCHES.
😮 😮 😮
oh and Mark? MOARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! loving reading this with you! thank you for inspiring me to read it again.
Okay, I'm sorry. I phrased that badly. I meant the whole "contemplating attack" thing as in a readiness to fight back. I in no way meant that you were going to jump them just for the hell of it. Sorry again. :/