The Book Thief Characters

(Click the character infographic to download.) Klepto With A CauseLiesel Meminger is the hardworking, book-thieving, kind-hearted star of the novel. She loves books so much, she steals them... eve...

(Click the character infographic to download.) The Sweetest LemonheadRudy is Liesel's lemon/sunshine-haired sidekick. He's the Saukerl (pig boy) to her Saumensch (pig girl)... as they affectionat...

(Click the character infographic to download.) The Jewish Fist FighterThis guy is a fighter in just about all the ways someone can be a fighter. But that doesn't make him a hardened man: our Max is...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Hans Is The ManWe all wish we had a father figure as crazy-awesome as Hans. He's warm-hearted, totally morally upright, strong and compassionate. Oh y...

A Rosa By Any Other Name Would Be As StrictAww, Rosa. We start this booking thinking she's going to be a textbook Mean Mommy. But by the time we're done with the novel, we realize that Rosa is as l...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Death And HumanityDeath is our guide and narrator to The Book Thief. But don't go cowering under the covers on his account. For one thing, Death a...

(Click the character infographic to download.) One-Woman LibraryOkay, Ilsa must be the only sympathetic character in the history of characters to wear a dang swastika bathrobe. C'mon, Ilsa. You're...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Werner is Liesel's little brother. He dies on the train when their mother is taking them to their foster parents, the Hubermanns. We don't know much a...

(Click the character infographic to download.) We know very little about Liesel's mother, except that she's a very tragic figure. She loses her husband and both of her children before disappearing...

We know next to nothing about Liesel's father. Liesel has no memories of him, but has heard he was a communist. The German Communist Party (KPD) was a political party in Germany when Hitler took po...

Erik is Max's father. He died around the same time Max was born, in 1916, in France, during World War I. While in France, Erik became friends with Hans Hubermann. He taught Hans to play the accordi...

We know little about Max's mother other than that she eventually had to sell the family music studio and move in with a brother after Erik's death. She saves the piece of paper with Hans' name and...

Walter Kugler is Max's good friend and former fist fighting partner. Walter is conscripted into the military and takes Max to a hiding place on November 9, 1938. This is the date of Kristallnacht,...

When Max is nine, his mother runs out of money and they go to live with an uncle who isn't named. We assume Aunt Ruth (a name Liesel hears Max saying in his sleep) is his uncle's wife, but the nove...

Hans Junior is the son of Hans and Rosa. He's a dedicated member of the Nazi Party. His disgust with his father's lack of allegiance to the party causes him to stop talking to him. According to Dea...

Trudy is the daughter of Hans and Rosa and a very minor character in the book. She shows up for holidays and doesn't cause any problems. She doesn't seem particularly close with either of her parents.

Alex is Rudy's father. He's a tailor with a tailor shop. His political beliefs are grounded in economics. After he loses his family during the Himmel Street bombing, he gets leave from the military...

Barbara is Rudy's mother. She seems like a nice person, but we don't learn that much about her. All we do know is that she doesn't want her son taken away to a Nazi school, or her husband to go awa...

Rudy's brothers and sisters aren't major characters, but we want to list their names for you: Kurt, Ann-Marie, Emma, and Bettina. They all die in the Himmel Street bombing.

Tommy lives on Himmel Street and is friends with Liesel and Rudy. Tommy has severe ear problems because he got lost in the snow for a long period of time as a young child. During the Hitler Youth m...

At the beginning of the novel, Frau Holtzapfel is Rosa Hubermann's enemy. She spits on the Hubermanns' door every time she goes past it. The relationship is soothed when Frau Holtzapfel hears Liese...

Michael is one of Frau Holtzapfel's sons. He loses three of his fingers in Stalingrad. He comes home to break the news that her other son, Robert, is dead. Michael hangs himself in Molching, over g...

Robert is Frau Holtzapfel's son. He dies in Stalingrad after losing both of his legs in an explosive blast.

Arthur Berg is the first leader of the fruit (and vegetable) stealing gang that Liesel and Rudy join. He's fair and generous with the take. Arthur isn't the type to leave somebody stranded on the b...

Viktor is the second leader of the fruit-stealing gang. He's a bully and is nothing like his predecessor, Arthur Berg. He almost chokes Rudy and steals Liesel's book, throwing it in the Amper River...

Frau Diller is a staunch Nazi supporter. She owns the shop where Liesel and Rudy buy mixed candy on Himmel Street. She dies in the Himmel Street bombing.

Franz is the evil leader of Rudy's Hitler Youth squad. He terrorizes Rudy and Tommy, eventually breaking Rudy's ribs after Rudy throws a rock at him.

Reinhold Zucker is another bully, a young man serving with Hans on the air raid clean-up crew. Zucker doesn't like Hans, because Hans beats him at cards. So, he trades seats with Hans on the truck...

Ludwig is the little boy Liesel beats up on the playground when he teases her about not knowing how to read. When his ankle is crushed at the book burning, Liesel apologizes to him—and he apologi...

Frau Heinrich works for the foster care system and is in charge of Liesel's case. She is the one who tells Hans that Liesel's mother has disappeared.

Heinz is the mayor of Molching, and, obviously, a Nazi. He's married to Ilsa. He's a very minor character.

Johann is Ilsa Hermann's son, who dies in 1918 in some sort of unexplained barbed-wire fence accident. Ilsa is still grieving and suffering over him twenty-two years later. Meeting Liesel helps Ils...