Friedrich

I'd say that all the characters are important to the development and realistic-ness (if you can call it that) of the story.They may be one of the protaganists or maybe just a minor character, but they are all significant. Everyone from Frau Penk to the Rabbi is important to the story. They show the progression of the story in some ways, like the man in front of Herr Rosenthal's shop telling people not to buy from Jews. Then it changes to worse things, like his shop wrecked in the Pogrom (or so I'd guess) and passersby scavenging his stationery. The characters as well as the events show how grieviously everything changes with Hitler's rise to power.
--Clarilyn