Book Thief Reflection

Reflect on Person and Their Story The man whose story I was honored to read was named Arthur Kupfer, from Warsaw, Poland. He was not necessarily working in the concentration camps, but instead, in the houses of SS officers. He was forced to do their basic chores, such as keeping the house clean, washing the car, and cleaning their stables. He meet about 18-20 Jews who were hiding, but eventually got caught and he knew what would happen to them. He knew they were going to be killed, and after they were killed, Arthur was forced to sell their clothes and return the money to the killer. Arthur explained that the man who killed them was a terrible, vicious killer. If he did not have anyone to shoot, he would practice shooting bottles all day with his machine gun. One night, when Arthur was sound asleep and did not respond to Hans, the killer and SS officer, he shot a bullet through a
Although his story is very different from the original Holocaust experiences we tend to think about, it is unique in its own way. I feel as though you could feel some safety by not being in the concentration camps, but at the same time you had to work really hard and stay on top of your duties because you were doing it directly for a SS Officer, and if he felt you were not doing the job the way he wanted, he could just kill you right then and there. It would almost feel so overwhelming and stressful to do the manual duties for a SS. This man’s story is very straight forward and factual. The emotions he felt during this experience seem to be almost too strong to put down on paper. They may be too hard for him to explain. Arthur looks like such a nice man, to be honest. If I had the chance to sit down and meet with, I would definitely ask how he felt during these situations. I would ask him if he felt safer in the house of a SS Officer or more intimated, rather