The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
This novel was inspired of the story based on the happening of the holocaust. It tells the story through a vision of a young 9 years old boy named Bruno. It does not truly show how much the jews suffered from this war because it is seen in a young boy's perspective.
The Boy with the Striped Pajamas - Brief Summary
Bruno is a nine-year-old boy growing up during World War II in Berlin. He lives in a huge house with his parents, his 12-year-old sister Gretel (whom he refers to as a hopeless case) and main servants called Maria and Lars. His father is a high-ranking SS officer who, after a visit from the Führer (Hitler), is promoted to 'Commandant', and to Bruno's dismay the family has to move away to a place called Out-With (which turns out to be Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz).
When Bruno gets there he is immediately homesick after leaving behind his home, grandparents, and his three best friends. He is unhappy with his new home.There are always soldiers coming in and out of the house. Bruno is lonely and has no one to talk to or play with and the house is so small that there is no exploring to be done. However, one day while Bruno is looking out of his window he notices a bunch of people all wearing the same striped pajamas and striped hats. As he is a curious child, Bruno asks his father who these people are, but gets a rather unusual answer. His father tells him that these people are not people at all. They are Jews.
Bruno finds out he is not allowed to explore the house or its surroundings, and his father is very stern in forbidding him to do so. Due to the combination of curiosity and boredom, he decides to explore. He thinks he spots a dot in the distance on the other side of the fence and as he gets closer, he sees it's a boy. Excited that there might be a boy his age Bruno introduces himself, blissfully unaware of the situation on the other side of the fence. The Jewish boy's name is Shmuel. He was taken from his family and forced to work in Auschwitz. Almost every day, they meet at the same spot and talk. Soon, they become best friends. They found out that they even have the same birthday.
The story ends with Bruno about to go back to Berlin with his mother and sister on the orders of his father. As a final adventure, he agrees to dress in a set of striped pajamas and goes in under the fence to help Shmuel find his father, who went missing in the camp. The boys are unable to find him. Just as it starts to rain and get dark, Bruno decides he would like to go home, but they are rounded up in a crowd of people by the Nazi guards who start them on a march.
Neither boy knows where this march will lead. However, they are soon crowded into a gas chamber, which Bruno assumes is a place to keep them dry from the rain until it stops. The author leaves the story with Bruno pondering, yet unafraid, in the dark holding hands with Shmuel.
In an epilogue, Bruno's family spent several months at their home trying to find Bruno, before his mother and Gretel return to Berlin, only to discover he is not there as they had expected. A year afterward, his father returns to the spot that the soldiers found Bruno's clothes (the same spot Bruno spent the last year of his life) and, after a brief inspection, discovers that the fence is not properly attached at the base and can form a gap big enough for a boy of Bruno's size to fit through. Using this information, his father eventually pieces together that they gassed Bruno to death. Several months later, the Red Army arrives to liberate the camp and orders Bruno's father to go with them. He goes without complaint, because "he didn't really mind what they did to him any more".