By Emily Matis
Markus Zusak
• Born on June 23, 1975 in Sydney, Australia.
• His father was a painter.
• Mother was German, and inspired him to
write this book with her stories.
• Youngest of 4 children.
• Another famous novel of his is I am the
Messenger.
Protagonist
Liesel Meminger
• Profile- Liesel is a tomboyish girl who is on the verge of
puberty. She is the main character of the story.
• Background- Liesel is sent to be fostered by the
Hubermanns because her father and mother are communists
and were sent to Dachau Concentration Camp.
• Originally she was suppose to come with her brother, but he
died on the train ride there.
Favorite Character
Hans Hubermann
Profile- his eyes are silver and he is tall and plays the accordion.
He helps Liesel transition into her new home, and he teaches her how
to read and write. He also comforts her when she has nightmares in
the middle of the night.
He is also against the Nazi party
But he joins so his family doesn’t suffer the consequences.
Most entertaining Character
Profile- Lemon blonde
hair, wiry and athletic.
Rudy is Liesel’s best friend and next
door neighbor.
He is madly in love with Liesel and
always tries to kiss her.
They play soccer and go on
adventures together.
Rudy Steiner
Cool Aspect to the Story
• Even though this story is about Liesel, she is
not narrating.
• The story is narrated by death.
• Death is recalling the autobiography that he
read written by Liesel telling her story of
growing up in Germany.
Exposition
• The story takes place mainly on Himmel Street
in Germany.
• The book is about Liesel and how she adjusts
to her new life with her foster parents.
• In this book she grows and develops into a
better and more educated person.
Rising Action
• Hans is involved in several occasions in which he
is caught helping Jews.
• The Hubermanns hide a Jew in their basement.
• Max leaves, because he feels guilty.
• Hans gets sent away to fight because he hasn’t
been devoted to the Nazi party.
• Liesel sees Max marching through the town
heading towards a concentration camp and tries
to help him.
Climax
• Himmel Street is bombed during the middle of
the night.
• No alarms were sounded.
• Liesel is the only one who survives on her
street because she was reading in her
basement.
Falling Action
• The Funeral of the Hubermanns and the
Steiner Family after the bombing.
• Alex Steiner (Rudy’s father) comes back from
the war to see his family buried.
• Liesel is reunited with Max after the war.
Setting
• This book is set in a fictional town of Molchen,
Germany before and during WWII.
• It is an important setting, because historically
a lot of events were occurring during WWII
that effected the citizens of Germany.
Resolution
• Many years later, death comes for
Liesel in Sydney and her and death talk.
They finally talk about her life and how
he followed her throughout the war.
Death- The theme of death is present throughout the novel. First of all, the
narrator is Death itself . WWII is also in the background which means that
death is all around Liesel. The sources of all of Liesel's and Max's nightmares
are the deaths of their family members.
Friendship- Much of the plot revolves around Liesel's relationship
with Rudy Steiner, which borders on romantic. Hans' loyalty to Max's
father leads to hiding Max in the basement, which creates the deep bond
between Liesel and Max.
Literature – Liesel learns the value of having a voice and knowing
how to read from the beginning of the book. She also realizes that
words are what hold the country under the power of Hitler and the
Nazi party. The theme is recurring: Hans teaches her to read at night,
the mayor's wife allows her into the library, and Max gives her two
books he wrote himself. Literature becomes Liesel's escape from reality.
Rating
I give this book an 8 ½. It was a really
well written and I really enjoyed it. It had
an interesting perspective.
 I thought the whole book was great, I
didn’t feel like it ever dragged.
 I was a little surprised about the ending,
but I would definitely recommend this
book to anyone.

Medical Experimentation
I decided to do my social issue on medical experimentation
during the Holocaust
-Nazi’s wanted to conduct genetic testing to prove they
were the superior race.
-They also felt they could further scientific progress
through their experiments.
Medical Experiment Video
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siE3My6T
84E - Overview
Experimentation Topics
Who were the experiments performed
on?
 The freezing/ hypothermia experiments.
 The genetic experiments.
 Experiments on pregnant women.
 Experiments on children.

Who?
Medical experimentation was usually
done on stronger men and women.
 A majority of the tests were done on
twins, pregnant women, and people with
usually characteristics.

Freezing and Hypothermia
This was usually done to men, to mimic a
soldier in the German Army.
 Two methods- icy tub of water, or placing
the person naked outside in subzero
temperatures.


The icy tub method was the fastest way
to drop body temperature. They
measured temperature with an insulated
probe inserted in the rectum. The probe
was held in place by an expandable
metal ring. (Korn)
Genetic Experimentation

Genetic experiments were performed to prove that the Nazi's were the
superior race.

Basically through these studies they came to the conclusion that
gypsies had a different blood and were more inclined to criminal
behavior. All of theses experiments were performed in gruesome ways
and with out anesthesia. (Rosenberg)
http://history1900s.about.com/od/auschwitz/a/mengeletwins_2.htm

After the victims were unloaded off the trains and stripped naked and
divided into men, women, and children, they would sort through the
thousands of people. The twins, dwarfs, and unique physical
specimens were selected to be assigned to the experimental blocks.
They were used more for the genetic experiments. In many ways the
majority who where killed in the gas chambers were much better off
than the survivors who went through different horrors.
Pregnant Women





In December 1942, Professor Carl Clauberg came to
Auschwitz.
He injected chemical substances into wombs during his
experiments.
Thousands of Jewish and Gypsy women were
subjected to this treatment.
They were sterilized by the injections, producing
horrible pain, inflamed ovaries, bursting spasms in the
stomach, and bleeding.
The injections seriously damaged the ovaries of the
victims, which were then removed and sent to Berlin.
(Tran)
http://www.helium.com/items/1141519-medical-experimentation-during-the-holocaust
Twins




Blood samples were taken from them daily.
Other experiments involved injecting
chemicals into the victims eyes to try and
change the color to blue. (resulted in pain,
infections, and blindness)
One twin would be experimented on and the
other would have nothing done to them. Then
the healthy twin would be killed to see what
damage had occurred on the dead
experimented twin.
Surgeries were often done without anesthesiaorgan removal, castration, and amputations.
(Rosenberg) (Loft)
Results
Between 1939 and 1945- more than
seventy medical and research
experiments were conducted at
Auschwitz, Dachau, and Birkenau.
 Over two hundred doctors experimented
on 70,000 to 100,000 victims.

What can be done to prevent this
from happening again?
We as a society should never let the
government or anyone treat any race,
culture or religion any differently than
everyone else.
 If we see discrimination occurring we
should take action and stop it.
 We need to make sure that everyone’s
human rights are protected no matter
who they are or where they came from.

Why should you care?
You should care because the victims of
the holocaust were human beings just
like you.
 And they were completely innocent
people who were discriminated against
because of there culture and beliefs.
 As a human, you have a certain rights,
and you have the responsibility to make
sure people are given those rights no
matter the circumstances are.

The End
Bibliography
1.Bulow, Louis. Gate to Hell-Auschwitz.2010<http://www.auschwitz.dk/Auschwitz.htm>.
2.Discover, SIRS. Genocide. 2006.
<http://discover.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%Asirs%AUS%3BARTICLE%3BART
%B0000222349>>.
3.Historiography, Holocaust. http://www.historiography-project.com/top/copyright.html. 1946. 2008
<http://www.historiography-project.com/weblog/1946/01/nazi-torture-and-medical-exper.html>.
4.Korn, Joseph. Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine. 25 April 1995.
<http://www.remember.org/educate/index.html#Study>.
5.Loft, Ian. Medical Experimentation during the Holocaust. 2002.
<http://www.helium.com/items/1114444-medical-experimentation-during-the-holocaust>.
6.Pisar, Samuel. "Out of Auschwitz." New York Times 28 January 2010.
7.Rosenberg, Jennifer. Mengele's Children- The Twins of Auschwitz. 2010
<http://history1900s.about.com/od/auschwitz/a/mengeletwins_2.htm>.
8.Tran, Can. Medical experimentation during the Holocaust. 2002. 2010
<http://www.helium.com/items/1141519-medical-experimentation-during-the-holocaust>.
9. Zusak, Markus, The Book Thief, published 2006 by Knopf