What is the theme and universal meaning of the text? what does Zusak want readers to take away from the story?

Wow there are so many themes. I think the universal one deals with how humans can be at once heroic and sick. People like Liesel, Hans, Rudy, Max... are capable of such grit and compassion while others like the Nazis are capable of such evil. I think Death sums this dichotomy up in his last words at the end of the novel, "I am haunted by humans."