Introduction
The Power of Words
Liesel Meminger: "Words! Without you, there wouldn't be any of this. Without words the Fuhrer is nothing! What good are the words?"
Death: "You humans don't need a boxing ring to inflict injury, did you know that? You can commit violence with words, and inspire violence with words. You do that quite a lot."
Words are powerful. They can protect or destroy. For example, in elementary school, my "crush" eloquently told me that I was, for lack of a better word, "smelly". Those words hurt my feeble, innocent, third-grade heart. In some cases, they can dispel or enthrall. Throughout history, speeches and propaganda were implemented as a call to action in favor of the nation or government. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel learns that words can cause people to commit horrible acts of violence against one another, which is shown through the dark images of the Holocaust. Throughout the book, Liesel slowly gains focus, as she becomes literate, that words can be used as a manipulation device and can be expressed through writing. In this way, Liesel uses the literature she steals throughout the story to help her create words that are "right". In this activity, you will be asked to compare effective speeches from history, gained through research, to write a speech as a call to action against the holocaust.