Thief

The first was The Grave Digger's Handbook.
Location: Icy ground, near train tracks, outside of Munich.
Time: After Werner's death.

Stealing a book is not like stealing anything else. It's stealing knowledge, adventure, and emotion. A book in Germany was like a pearl in a pig pen. It was rare, and unappreciated. A book can satisfy my hunger more effectively than food. Rudy only cared about food. He didn't understand that I could eat dirt, but I couldn't read anything but printed words.

The second: The Shoulder Shrug
Location: Molching, Nazi book burning in front of the Mayor's house

Book burnings are repugnant. I walked away from the sight. A book was smoldering on the side, still intact. I stole it, and I had a witness. Isla Hermann, the mayor's wife. I lived in fear for weeks, praying that she would not tell.

I did not have to worry. Frau Hermann was a soft spoken woman who loved the written word. Many days after, I looked longingly at her library as I delivered the washed laundry. I believe that she must have seen my stares. She took pity. My next book steals were from there. I thought that I was using the most clandestine methods of history. Frau Hermann has told me since that she knew of every book that I "stole." She began leaving books next to an open window, along with a plate of cookies for Rudy and his stomach. The last gift she gave me came after I was extremely insolent. I destroyed a book in anger from her library. I left a letter apologizing, adding that I would not come any more.

She came to my house with a little black book. The book was blank. She told me to write. "Schribe."

That book saved my life. I spent weeks in the basement at night, writing ten pages each night. I wrote my story because I knew it best. I finished on October 2, the night of the air raid. I read my last sentence over and over again.
"I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right." From The Book Thief

My book was lost that night. But I don't need the book. Writing it has helped me overcome some of my problems. I can only hope that someone can benefit from it.

October 9, 1945