Does respect for orders and laws justify the massive persecution of a race? Is protecting one's family a valid reason to tolerate the mistreatment of Jews? At the Nuremberg trials, judges ruled that simply following orders was an insignificant reason to condone the actions of many Hitler party officials. Although leaders who ran death camps and killed Jews blamed their involvement on following instructions, half of them were sentenced to death and the other half to life in prison. The Nuremberg trials established “the idea that individuals are responsible for their own actions, even in times of war” (Danzer, 587). Similarly, in The Book Thief, author Markus Zusak highlights the responsibility of German citizens to denounce Hitler's actions towards the Jews. The main character, Liesel, learns kindness toward Jews despite her community's negative view of them when her adoptive parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, take in a Jewish man, Max, in their basement. Liesel befriends Max and becomes friends with him over the shared loss of their family. Later, Max leaves the Hubermanns to protect them after Hans publicly gives bread to a Jew on the street. Throughout The Book Thief, Markus Zusak describes the responsibility of a German citizen to protect Jews and how the lack of protection leads to devastating effects with his diction and use of juxtaposition and metaphor. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay From the beginning, the author uses juxtaposition to demonstrate the contrast between Germans who supported Hitler and those who disapproved of him and highlights the responsibility of each group for the mistreatment of the Jews. From the beginning of the novel, Liesel struggles to understand Hitler, the Nazis, and her community's hatred of Jews. Two contradictory figures in his life are Frau Holtzapfel and Hans Hubermann. Zusak introduces Frau Holtzapfel, Liesel's neighbor, as a devoted member of the Nazi Party with "one golden rule...if you walked into her store and didn't say 'heil Hitler,' you wouldn't get served" (Zusak 49, 50). On the contrary, Liesel's father openly resists the Nazi party. This is made clear when Hans helps a Jew: after members of the Nazi party paint a slur on the door of a Jewish shopkeeper, Hans approaches the owner and says, "'I'll come tomorrow... and paint your door,'" a promise he keeps (Zusak 181). . Additionally, later in the book, Hans attempts to help a Jew walking toward the Dachau extermination camp: “Hans Hubermann stretched out his hand and presented a piece of bread” (Zusak 394). The contrast between these two characters illustrates the undeniable division of German society during the Second World War. However, Zusak examines the integrity of both types of German citizens when the residents of Molching hide in the air raid shelter "waiting for their final demise" by asking the reader: "Did these people deserve better?" (Zusak 375). The author chooses to create two very contrasting characters and throw them into the same life-threatening situation to force the reader to think about the responsibility of the German citizen to speak out and protect the Jews. Although 90 percent of Germans fully supported Hitler, those who disapproved of his methods often remained silent. Those who chose not to remain silent were punished. The author expresses the need for society to speak out when something is wrong, even if it.