29 others, the flag trundled from the ledge like washing hung out to dry. But it was there. 62
While there is a clear contrast between the citizens who display their allegiance with zeal, such as Frau Diller, and those who do so merely to conform to the public transcript and avoid suspicion regarding their loyalty, all residents, at least publicly, appear to honour Hitler and his regime by decorating their homes with Nazi imagery.
The Hubermann family, however, exemplifies how visual conformity does not always equate to genuine allegiance. Indeed, when they cannot initially locate their flag on Hitler’ s birthday, Rosa panics and insists that‘[ w ] e have to find it’ 63 since she is terrified that if they do not then‘[ t ] hey’ ll come for us […] They’ ll come and take us away’. 64 Evidently, her desperation to find the flag emanates not from any personal patriotism, but from the fear of being perceived as disobeying the public transcript and the consequences that the Hubermanns would resultingly face. To protect his family, Hans thus prepares to‘ paint a flag on one of his drop sheets’, 65 irrespective of their poverty and the fact that the family’ s main source of income is through Hans’ painting( so conserving his supplies is essential to sustaining their already meagre livelihood). His act aligns with Karl Christian Fuhrer’ s observation in his chapter on the function of civilians displaying the Nazi flag that‘ an outward show of subjugation to the NSDAP could be a strategy to protect an individual’ s private sphere and deny the party power over it’. 66 Rather than an indication of true conformity, Hans’ creation of a flag mimics the creation of props for the stage. In theatres, set designers employ the art technique of‘ trompe-l’ œil’, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the creation of‘[ props ] intended to give an illusion of reality’. 67 By creating a Nazi flag, Hans performs loyalty to the state, circumventing external suspicion and disguising his true political ideologies behind synthetic displays of Nazism.
62
Zusak, The Book Thief, 111.
63
Ibid.
64
Ibid.
65
Ibid.
66
Karl. C. Fuhrer,““ Hoist the Flag!”: Flags as a Sign of Political Consensus and Distance in the Nazi Period” in Private Life and Privacy in Nazi Germany, ed. E Harvey, J Hurter, M Umbach and A Wirsching( Cambridge University Press, 2019), 158.
67
Oxford English Dictionary,“ trompe l ' oeil( n.),” December 2024, https:// doi. org / 10.1093 / OED / 4052049015.