Jews, Wars, and Standover (Wo)men

Max- The Jew
Max is the only of his family saved from Nazis at a young age.  Still on the run, he seeks help from Hans Hubermann, an old friend of his late father.  While in the Hubermann's care, he meets Leisel, who sees similarities in their everyday torture.  The loss of family, nightmares reoccurring their fears, and seeking the Hubermanns with a feeling of agitation, desperation, and fear.  "Leisel, in the act of watching, as already noticing the similarities between this stranger and herself (205)."

• Jew

A word frequently used to describe Max in the story, as if this a Jew is the only thing possible to identify him as.  As if Jew is the only important characteristic of Max.  And in Nazi Germany, that could very well be the case.  There's a certain feeling that comes along whenever the word Jew is used to describe him.  The word, at least in this story, comes with a feeling almost like shame, but difficult to describe otherwise, as the word doesn't come with an explanation to why you feel this way about the word, just the way everyone in the story was feeling about it.  "A Jewish rat, back to his hole (215)."

Hans And Erik
Hans Hubermann and Max's father, Erik, were friends in the time of war.  Erik had in fact saved Hans from being killed during the war.  In fact, Erik made that Hans was the only one to survive that particular battle.  Hans carried Erik's accordion through the rest of that war, and was later told by Erik's wife that he could keep it.  This was also Hans' first encounter with two year old Max, who Erik had never mentioned was his son.

The Standover Man
The standover man is not an actual man, but a book that Max made for Leisel's birthday out of torn pages of Mein Kampf.  The book was 13 pages long and told a brief history of Max.  In the story, Max is illustrated as a bird, which I think may have something to do with Leisel repeatedly saying that she thought his hair was like feathers.  The story tells that Max has always had a fear of men standing over him, which I think may come from his competitiveness, even though as a child, he would always lose fights.  When he found Leisel standing over him, he may have had a bit of fear, but began to find things in common with the girl.