The Other Side of Sandpaper
- One day in May of 1939 the "NSDAP (otherwise known as the Nazi Party) […] marched" through Molching (10.4).
- They chant, "Deutschland uber alles"—Germany over Everything" (10.4).
- (NSDAP stands for National Socialist German Workers Party. The word "Nazi," by the way, comes from German. It's the "phonetic spelling of the first two syllables of Nationalsozialist, National Socialist."
- The people watch, clap, cheer.
- Liesel is with Rudy and Hans on the street.
- Death tells us that in 1933 (the year Hitler took power), ninety percent of Germans voted for Hitler.
- Ten percent of Germans did not support Hitler. Hans Hubermann is part of this ten percent, and he has his reasons (as we'll soon learn).
- That night, Liesel dreams of the brown-shirted Nazis. They take her to a train and show her Werner.
- This time, she not only screams, but also wets the bed.
- Papa helps her get cleaned up. As he's taking off the sheet, something falls from the bed onto the floor—it's the book.
- Hans reads the title out loud: The Grave Digger's Handbook.
- He asks Liesel if she wants to read it, and she says she does.
- In four years, Liesel will be writing her own book. In it she will write about how Hans teaches her to read.
- Before they begin, Hans asks her why she would want to read a book about digging graves.
- She tells him she took the book from the snow, near Werner's grave.
- Hans shows her a page and asks which words she knows. She only knows three, "the three main German words for "the" (10.7).
- Hans decides to start by teaching her the alphabet and some words.
- He has sandpaper for his painting work, and he uses the smooth side of the sandpaper as paper.
- He draws letters, words, and figures for Liesel.
- They study long into the night.
- Afterwards, in the dark, Papa sits in the chair in case she needs him. Liesel doesn't close her eyes because, "She was watching the words" (10.31).