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"Do you know what happened to your family?"

Death's quick sidenote to us all on page 217 is really just a question asked by Liesel when Max Vandenberg. But it holds more importance than just that. You see, in Nazi Germany "Do you know X" or "Did you ever find out Y" were common questions asked between folks, and even further on after the war where questions such as htis are still asked today. The question "Do you know what happened to your family" is a loaded gun. It can be asked in a number of ways, and that's what gives it the awesome that it has. When asked by a Nazi, it might be Rhetorical ("DO you know what happened to your family? THEY R DED LOL"), for instance. When asked by Liesel it's an honest question, one I'm sure Max wishes he could answer truthfully.

And really, do we not already know what ahppened to them? Walter, his friend, even discovers that they no longer live there, and have bee replaced by a German family (It can be assumed as much at least). From this little evidence that we have as of that point in the book, we can use our own knowleged of the Holocaust and WWII Germany to deduce that Max's family is dead, or imprisoned, neither of which is really of any more good than the other. We can further prove this by the excerpt of "The Whistler" on page 213 -


She lay there, frightened, in a pool of blood, a strange tune singing in her ear. She recalled the knife, in and out, and a smile. As always, the whistelr had smiled as he ran away, into a dark and murderous night....


- This passage doesn't seem of much importance at first glance. From the text, it's simply all that Liesel was reading at the time. But if one looks beyond the text, and into the history of that time, we find parallels with Hitler himself in a way. Or even Nazi Germany as a whole, if one were daring enough to try and spread such a small amount of text over an entire nation. We can see that a young woman was stabbed quickly (Possibly even in the back), with a smile on the murderer's face. We can easily draw a conclusion that the young woman is the Jewish Community in Nazi Germany as a whole, for they were people who served Germany with a loyal devotion. They were Germans, not Jews - They were everyday citizens. Then the Government (Hitler) stabbed them in the back by outlawing their existence. Worst yet, Hitler (Who we can determine to be the Murderer), thought his goal was righteous, and just, and smiled about it. He was happy about what he was doing to these people.

So, based on the evidence we know from history, the seemingly unimportant text which we have our eyes drawn to for a reason (A reason which I believe to be to show us what the Government was doing to it's citizens), we can draw a conclusion as to why the question "Do you kn ow what happened to your family" is quite important to the story. We know that it's an important part of Max's life, as he was both Asked this question and he surely wonders the answer himself, but we also know that it defines an era of time, where if you were living in Germany, or if you were even just a soldier in any conflict (During any time period, no less), this question holds weight, as you would be asking yourself this question time and time again.