The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

by Madison Patillo

Joined Apr 2018
Published Books 1

Young Bruno lives a wealthy lifestyle in prewar Germany along with his mother, elder sister, and SS Commandant father. His father was promoted to a higher rank in the German army. They throw a party to celebrate. A couple of days after the party they move to Poland for his dad’s new job. Bruno did not like this at all.

Bruno and Gretel get a private tutor, Herr Liszt, who pushes an agenda of antisemitism and nationalist propaganda. As a result, Gretel becomes extremely fanatical in her support for the Third Reich, to the point of covering her bedroom wall with Nazi propaganda posters and portraits of Adolf Hitler. Bruno is confused as the Jews he has seen, in particular the family’s Jewish servant Pavel, do not resemble the caricatures in Liszt’s teachings.

One day, Bruno disobeys his parents and sneaks off into the woods, eventually arriving at an electric barbed wire fence surrounding a camp. He befriends a boy his own age named Shmuel. Bruno thinks that the striped uniforms that Shmuel, Pavel, and the other prisoners wear are pyjamas and Shmuel believes his grandparents died from an illness during their journey to the camp. Bruno starts meeting Shmuel regularly, sneaking him food and playing board games with him. He eventually learns that Shmuel is a Jew and was brought to the camp with his father and mother.

After a couple of weeks of seeing Shmuel, Bruno sees Shmuel working in his home. Shmuel is there to clean wine glasses because they needed someone with small hands to do it. Bruno offers him some cake and willingly Shmuel accepts it. Unfortunately, one of his father’s soldiers, lieutenant Kotler, happens to walk into the room where Bruno and Shmuel are socialising. Kotler is furious and yells at Shmuel for talking to Bruno. In the midst of his scolding, Kotler notices Shmuel chewing the food Bruno gave him. When Kotler asks Shmuel where he got the food, he says Bruno offered the cake, but Bruno, fearful of Kotler, denies this. Believing Bruno, Kotler tells Shmuel that they will have a “little chat” later. Distraught, Bruno goes to apologise to Shmuel, but finds him gone. Every day, Bruno returns to the same spot by the camp but does not see Shmuel.

Eventually, Shmuel reappears behind the fence, sporting a black eye. Bruno apologises and Shmuel forgives him, renewing the friendship. After the funeral of Bruno’s grandmother who was killed in Berlin by an enemy bombing, Ralf tells Bruno and Gretel that their mother suggests that they go to live with a relative because it is not safe there. Their mother suggests this because she does not want her children living with their murderous father. Shmuel has problems of his own, his father has gone missing after he participated in a march and did not return to the camp. Bruno decides to redeem himself by helping Shmuel find his father.

The next day, Bruno, who is due to leave that afternoon, dons a striped prisoners’ outfit and a cap to cover his unshaven head, and digs under the fence to join Shmuel in the search. Bruno soon discovers the true nature of the camp after seeing the many sick and weak-looking Jews, much to his shock.

While searching, the boys are taken on a march with other inmates by Sonderkommandos. At the house, Gretel and Elsa discover Bruno’s disappearance. After they discover the open window he went through, Elsa bursts into Ralf’s meeting to alert him that Bruno is missing. Ralf and his men mount a search. Led by a dog tracking Bruno’s scent they find his discarded clothing outside the fence. Elsa and Gretel are following along behind. They enter the camp, looking for him.

Bruno, Shmuel and the other inmates are stopped inside a changing room and are told to remove their clothes for a “shower”. They are packed into a gas chamber, where Bruno and Shmuel hold each other’s hands. A Schutzstaffel soldier pours some Zyklon B pellets inside, and the prisoners start panicking, yelling and banging on the metal door.

When Ralf realises that a gassing is taking place, he cries out his son’s name. He ran to the gas chamber only to find out that it was too late. Elsa and Gretel fall to their knees in despair and mourn Bruno.

The gas chamber grew silent and all the prisoners, including Bruno and Shmuel, are dead.

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