What is Zusak saying about the power of the written word? What power does language bring to Liesel and what does Zusak intend to suggest about the power of language as a whole?

If you check out the title you can see that books are an essential theme to this story. Liesel took a lot of chances stealing books from the Nazis. Jewish identity, their very souls are imbedded within the written world. The book burnings hence become a metaphor for the burning of Jews. When Liesel saves a book she saves Jewish identity from ethnic cleansing. The words bring Liesel a reason to keep fighting; they define people like Max who she cares for. Words are ideas and ideas can not be destroyed. Liesel wanted to preserve these ideas.