The Book Thief: Flashbacks 1 key example

Death goes on to tell the story of Hans Hubermann and a Jewish man named Erik Vandenburg. During World War I, they fought side by side and became friends. Erik taught Hans to play the accordion. One day, Erik volunteered Hans to stay behind and transcribe letters while his companions all went into the field. Staying behind saved Hans from being killed along with the rest of them. Hans tried to return Erik's accordion to his wife, but she would not take it. He promised to repay her for her husband's life should she ever need anything. It seemed like a futile gesture at the time. However, this was when Hans met two-year-old Max. The flashback demonstrates that Max's relationship with Liesel and the Hubermanns truly dates back more than 20 years, to World War I. It emphasizes the way human lives can circle back on themselves and connect up with others in surprising ways. It also suggests that kindness finds ways to pay itself forward, even when it cannot be paid back.

The flashback both bolsters and complicates the idea, supported by many historians, that World War I caused World War II. Germany was already struggling in the years leading up to the first World War, and the war devastated the economy even further. Poverty and inequality deepened existing social rifts. Jewish people were scapegoated, so that the same Jewish man who gave his life for Hans in World War I would have been considered an enemy of the state two decades later. Zusak draws the reader's attention to the human relationships that are formed under circumstances of trauma. The same war that escalated anti-Semitism in Germany also created a lasting bond between the Hubermanns and the Vandenburgs. As Death states, "It all dated back" to World War I. "All" includes the good as well as the bad. The flashback is evidence that war can create human bonds even while it tears people apart.